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THE ISLANDS 


of the 


PACIFIC 


From the Old to the New 


By 

JAMES M. ALEXANDER 


Second Edition : Revised and Enlarged 
with New Illustrations 


American Tract Society 


New York 



LiBRARv 

One voi- rt<* 

OCT. 22 190b 



^v' 



PRONUNCIATION OF POLYNESIAN WORDS. 



The European pronunciation of the vowels of the 
alphabet has been adopted in this volume. The letter 
a is pronounced as in arm; e as ey in they; i as in 
machine ; u as in rule. The diphthong ai resembles the 
English ay ; au has the sound of ow. 



COPYRIGHT, 1895. 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



COPYRIGHT, 1908. 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



Printed from Type set and from Plates 
made Within the United State* 



State; 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



This new edition of the Islands of the Pacific is issued 
to meet the steady demand for information concerning 
those Islands. The book is thoroughly revised and 
brought down to the present date. Additional matter 
has been inserted, considerable sections have been re- 
written, and the arrangement of the old edition has been 
largely changed. New illustrations have also been in- 
serted. 

In view of the increased interest in the Islands of the 
Pacific by reason of the far-reaching political changes in 
that part of the world by the events of the present de- 
cade, the publishers feel confident that this new edition 
will place in the hands of the reading public just the 
things they wish to know and which they could not learn 
elsewhere. 

The book is a continuous argument, showing, first, the 
failure of mere influences from civilization without Chris- 
tianity and of Roman Catholic Missions to uplift the 
Islanders, and then the success of genuine Christian 
Missions. It shows also that this success indicates the 
truth and value of Christianity, and the certainty that 
Christianity will prevail over the world. 



PREFACE 



This book has grown out of an effort to sketch briefly 
the history of the Mission Enterprise in Hawaii. It was 
found difficult to do this properly without recounting 
considerable of the history of other islands of the Pacific, 
inasmuch as all the missions of that ocean have been so 
co-related in their origin and results that to describe 
one of them it was necessary to describe all. And so 
difficult was it to obtain information about these mis- 
sions from numerous books, some of them rare and costly 
and others out of print, that a brief and comprehensive 
resume of all the missions in the Pacific seemed desir- 
able. 

The aim of this book is to promote interest in Chris- 
tian Missions. While great interest is now awakened re- 
specting the islands of the Pacific by descriptions of their 
enchanting scenery, by investigations of their geology, 
natural history, ethnology and antiquarian treasures, and 
by advertisement of industrial and commercial enter- 
prises for developing their resources, it seems desirable 
that fuller description be given of the enterprises for 
lifting their inhabitants from their primeval paganism 
into Christian civilization ; enterprises which are sub- 
limely above the almost universal greed and selfishness 
of mankind, and which by their already achieved suc- 
cess kindle prophecy of a new era of light and blessing 
for all the Pacific Ocean and all the world. 



PREFACE. 

In publishing this book the author gratefully acknowl- 
edges the permission of the following authors to use 
pictorial illustrations from their publications, and also 
indebtedness to them and others for some of the infor- 
mation given in this book : Miss C. F. Gordon-Cum- 
ming, author of "At Home in Fiji" and "Cruise in a 
French Man-of-war;" George Palmer, author of "Kid- 
napping in the South Seas ;" A. H. Hallam Murray, 
publisher of Erskine's " Islands of the Western Pacific ;" 
Macmillan and Company, publishers of Siemens' ' ' Mis- 
sion to Viti ;" Geo. Reel and Sons, publishers of Ellis' 
"Polynesian Researches;" D. Appleton and Company, 
publishers of "Fiji and the Fijians ;" the American 
Tract Society, publishers of Williams' ' ' Enterprises in 
the South Sea Islands ;" Pacific Press Company, pub- 
lishers of "The Story of Pitcairn's Island;" Arthur 
Inkersley, attorney at law, and Prof. W. D. Alexander, 
author of "A Brief History of the Hawaiian People." 

J. M. ALEXANDER. 



CoNTENTS- 



chapter I. 

The Pacific Ocean, its Islands and Peoples page i 

CHAPTER II. 

Uncivilizing Influences from Civilized Countries 12 

CHAPTER III. 

Influences of Spurious Christianity: The Marquesas Islands. 25 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Origin of Christian Missions in the Pacific 53 

CHAPTER V. 
The Society Islands 59 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Austral Islands 88 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Pearl Islands 99 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Hervey Islands no 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Hawaiian Islands 131 

CHAPTER X. 
Samoa 194 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XL 
Micronesia 220 

CHAPTER XII. 
The Tonga, or Friendly, Islands 249 

CHAPTER XIII. 
New Zealand 263 

CHAPTER XIV. 
The Fiji Islands 294 

CHAPTER XV. 
Melanesia 308 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Melanesia continued 331 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands 339 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Conclusion 361 



THE 



Islands of the Pacific. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PACIFIC OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. 

In the year 15 13 the Spanish adventurer, Vasco 
Nufiez De Balboa, crossed the Isthmus of Darien, and 
from the summit of the Sierra De Quarefua caught the 
first glimpse ever obtained by European eyes of the 
ocean that washes the western coast of America. In 
joy at his discovery he fell on his knees, rough bandit 
though he was, and gave thanks to God. 

In the year 1521 Fernao de Magalhaes passed through 
the strait now known by his name, and first of Europe- 
ans voyaged upon this ocean. In admiration of its calm 
beauty, as contrasted with the stormy waters of the South 
Atlantic, he named it the Mar Pacifico. 

Afterwards for many years this ocean had a peculiar 
fascination for explorers. Magalhaes and Sir Francis 
Drake each sailed across it to the Moluccas. It is prob- 
able that in the year 1555 Juan Gaetano ventured far 
north over its unexplored waters and visited Hawaii ; 
but he concealed his discovery for the benefit of Spain. 



2 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

In 1606 Pedro Fernando De Queros discovered the New 
Hebrides, and in the following year Tahiti. In 1768 
Capt. James Cook was sent by the British Government to 
observe the transit of Venus from Tahiti, and in subse- 
quent voyages discovered the Antarctic Continent, New 
Caledonia, some of the Hervey Islands, and finally, in 
January, 1778, the Hawaiian Islands, where he was killed 
in an affray with the natives. 

These and other voyagers in a few years made known 
to the world the contour and extent of the Pacific Ocean 
and the number and situation of most of its islands. 
But they had little idea of the importance of this ocean, 
of the vast commerce that would traverse its waters, or of 
the imperial civilizations that would spring up along its 
borders. Nor can we even now fully realize the impor- 
tance of this part of the world. Senator Wm. H. Seward, 
after his journey around the world, remarked that "the 
Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and the vast regions 
beyond, will become the chief theatre of events in the 
world's great hereafter." This remark, though somewhat 
rhetorical, correctly points to a wonderful future era of 
this ocean. Already the great nations of the old world 
are turning their attention thither, considering its routes 
of commerce, seeking its strategic points for military 
operations, and, with the rapacity with which they have 
partitioned amongst themselves the dark continent of 
Africa, grasping for its islands. Already higher enter- 
prises than theirs have far advanced ; and the pagan 
populations are rising out of their primeval degradation 
into Christian civilization ; and now, as Balboa from the 



THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. 3 

Isthmus discovered a new ocean, we from our present 
standpoint may behold, not far distant, a new age of en- 
lightenment and benevolence, a Pacific Age, about to 
dawn over all this ocean. 

Of all the matters that attract attention to this part 
of the world none are more important than these philan- 
thropic enterprises. To understand them it is necessary 
first to take a brief survey of the physical features of this 
ocean and of its islands, and of the character and history 
of its peoples. 

The Pacific Ocean is the largest expanse of water in 
the world, covering an area of 67,810,000 square miles : 
more than a quarter of the earth's surface. Its greatest 
dimensions are 10,000 miles east and west along the 
Equator, from South America to Asia, and 9,000 miles 
north and south, from Behring Strait to the Antarctic 
Circle. Its average depth is 2,500 fathoms, and its 
greatest depth yet discovered 4,475 fathoms, or about 
five and a quarter miles, a depth found between the 
Caroline and Ladrone Islands. 

The islands of this ocean are classified as the Conti- 
nental and Oceanic. The Continental islands lie near 
and parallel to the continents of Asia and Australia, from 
the Aleutian Islands on the north to Sumatra and New 
Zealand on the south. The Oceanic islands occupy the 
rest of the ocean. They lie in lines or ranges trending 
from southeast to northwest, a few in lines tranverse to 
this direction ; and each island is elongated in the same 
direction with the group to which it belongs. These 
lines of the islands are generally parallel to the outlines 



4 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

of the continents and to the great mountain ranges of the 
world ; which indicates that the same cosmic forces that 
lifted the continent and their mountain ranges upheaved 
these islands. 

The Oceanic islands are of two kinds ; the coral and 
the volcanic. The coral islands consist of atolls and 
elevated islands. The atolls are mere sand-banks, formed 
by accumulations of debris washed by the ocean upon coral 
reefs, and are generally not more than ten or twenty feet 
in height above high water-mark. They are narrow, 
varying from a few yards to a hundred yards in breadth. 
They generally inclose lagoons, into which the ocean 
washes from the leeward sides. The coral polyps, that 
have formed these atolls, cannot live at greater depths 
than one hundred feet below the ocean's surface. There- 
fore they must have worked either in shoal waters around 
subsiding islands, till the islands sank, leaving lagoons in 
their places, or on rising islands, till lagoons were enclosed 
by reefs on the rims of the submarine craters. 

Both processes have prevailed. Prof. Alexander Agassiz, 
in making artesian borings on Funati of the Fiji Group, 
found that coral was there continuous to six hundred feet 
below the ocean-level. By such borings at Honolulu coral 
and bits of wood were brought up from depths of eight 
hundred feet below ocean-level. In the Fiji Group there 
are hills of coral, varying from twenty to six hundred feet 
in height, and on Vavau of the Tongan Group a mountain, 
Talau, nine hundred feet in height, consists entirely of 
coral. These facts indicate that there have been both a 
subsidence and an elevation of the islands. These geologic 



THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. $ 

changes may be ascribed to the processes of wrinkling of 
the earth's crust, as it has undergone contraction by reason 
of its gradual loss of heat, and to cosmic influences perhaps 
of the sun and moon. The lagoons do not fill with coral, 
because the coral polyps thrive only in the pure aerated 
water on the outsides of reefs. 

On these strips of sandy soil seeds, borne thither by 
winds and waves and birds, have produced considerable 
vegetation. But the flora does not comprise more than 
fifty species. The atolls are subject to drouths, being too 
low to intercept the clouds and draw from them rainfalls ; 
and, for this reason, they are called " the deserts of the 
Pacific." Their inhabitants subsist on cocoanuts, pandanus 
and fish. 

The elevated coral islands, which are few in number, 
are situated among volcanic islands, to which class they 
belong, and consist partly of volcanic rocks and soil. 
They are very fertile, and many of them are veritable 
Edens of beauty and fruitfulness, being covered with a 
luxuriant and varied vegetation. 

The volcanic islands are so called, because of their 
volcanic origin. Their whole framework is volcanic 
rock. On nearly all of them there are extinct craters, 
and on some of them there are active volcanoes. 
They vary in height from a few hundred to fourteen 
thousand feet. Most of them are very picturesque, 
being deeply cleft with valleys, and crowned with 
peaks, pinnacles and crags; and over most of them 
there spreads the richest tropical vegetation of every tint 
and shade of green. Vines so overrun the cliffs and trees 



6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

that their appearance has been compared to waterfalls of 
foliage. Tourist have described some of these islands 
as like earthly paradises, and have remarked that " it is 
difficult for the most glowing imagination to conceive of 
places more enchanting." 

Around most of these islands are barrief- reefs, extend- 
ing parallel with the shore at distances varying from a 
few yards to several miles. Opposite the large valleys 
there are openings through these reefs; for the coral 
polyps cannot live in the muddy waters that are poured 
forth by the streams of the valleys. These openings 
form good entrances to excellent harbors, while the 
barrier-reefs protect the shores from the violence of ocean 
waves in time of storms, and thus enclose quiet waters 
that are of great value for fishing, and for voyaging from 
village to village. 

The climate in all these islands has less extremes of 
heat and cold than occur at similar latitudes on the 
continents, as it is modified by the winds and currents 
of the ocean. In the extreme South Pacific these 
currents flow with the winds to the east, and send north 
along the Patagonian coast a stream which trends with 
the trade winds to the northwest, and moderates the 
heat of the Southern Tropics. In the Western Pacific 
the Japanese Gulf Stream flows northeast to the Aleutian 
Islands, and then south along the coast of North America, 
and trending with the northeast trade winds to the 
southwest moderates the heat of the Northern Tropics. 
Where these currents do not moderate the heat the 
temperature of the ocean sometimes rises to 85 ° Fahren. 



THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. J 

heit ; as is the case near Mexico and near Sumatra. In 
the South Pacific, especially in the neighborhood of the 
Samoa Islands, violent hurricanes sometimes occur during 
the period from December to April. 

The inhabitants of the Oceanic islands are of four 
races, Polynesians, Papuans, Fijis and Micronesians. 

The Polynesians are a brown people, the finest in physical 
development of the Pacific races. They are naturally of 
amiable, affectionate and happy temperament. Their 
origin is traced to the Dravidians of India. 

Of the many evidences of their derivation from the 
Dravidians the strongest are the facts that their language 
and the Dravidian language have causative prefixes of 
verbs, and inclusive and exclusive pronouns, as well as 
many similar words, and that their traditions point to 
India as their mother country. That they did not originate 
from the Aryans is proved by the fact that the Aryan 
languages lack these causative prefixes and inclusive and 
exclusive pronouns. That they did not originate from the 
Malays is proved by the utter difference of their language 
from the Malayan, which is largely Mongolian. 

The Dravidians originated from the Turanian race, a 
branch of which, in very ancient times, invaded India. 
There 2,000 years B. C, the Dravidians were invaded by 
Aryans from the northwest, and by them driven to the 
ocean coasts. Thence, fleeing from enemies, or dreaming 
of Elysian islands, they ventured forth on the ocean, and 
became the greatest navigators of the ancient world. 
They voyaged around more than three-fifths of the circum- 
ference of the globe, sometimes going in mere hollowed- 



8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

logs over two thousand miles; as between Tahiti and 
Samoa on the south and Hawaii on the north. They 
colonized most of the islands between Madagascar and 
Easter and between New Zealand and Hawaii. The New 
Zealanders and the Hawaiians kept carefully genealogies 
of their rulers ; and these genealogies coincide in the 
names of two very ancient kings and their queens, who, 
according to their traditions, reigned in Hawaiiki, the 
chief island of Samoa, or a district in one of the Society 
Islands. In one of these places, probably seven hundred 
years ago, they were one nation. 

Their language is mellifluous, consisting chiefly of 
vowels. Dwelling indolently and listlessly in the comforts 
of the Tropics, they expressed their few, simple ideas by 
soft vowel sounds and abbreviated words. They thus so 
contracted their words and dropped their consonants 
that at Hawaii only twelve letters are needed to spell all 
the Hawaiian words. Very remarkably throughout the 
Pacific they have the same language, similar traditions, 
and worship the same deities. 

The Papuans occupy the New Hebrides and the ad- 
jacent islands on the southwest. They are a black, frizzly- 
haired people, small in stature and in every respect inferior 
to the Polynesians. Their languages abound in con- 
sonants and closed syllables, and are divided into many 
dialects. The Fijis are a mixed race, part Polynesian 
and part Papuan, inferior to the Polynesians, and superioi 
to the Papuans. The Micronesians, also, are a mixec 
race, derived from the Japanese, Polynesian and Papuar 
races. They are darker in complexion and smaller ii. 



THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. 9 

stature than the Polynesians ; but in the western Mi- 
cronesian islands they are of lighter complexion, and 
more like the Japanese. 

For ages these oceanic races lived secluded on the is- 
lands of their watery domain, a world by themselves, 
with a romantic history of voyages from island to is- 
land, of pagan orgies, and savage wars. They labored 
under disadvantages, for advancing in civilization, from 
their lack of metals, of which to make tools, and from 
the very salubrity of their climate and productiveness of 
their soil, which obviated the need of labor for a liveli- 
hood. They had but to throw the net into the still 
waters inside their reefs to catch fish, and to reach out 
the hand to pluck the ripe plantain or breadfruit, and 
in the perennial mildness of their climate could live al- 
most without clothing. With great skill they made 
dwellings, canoes, and household fabrics, by the use of 
stone adzes and knives of bones and shell, and beat out 
a poor kind of clothing from the bark of trees ; but in 
their primitive condition they were generally little better 
in appearance than herds of wild animals. 

In their social condition they were not much better. 
Though occupying regions of enchanting beauty, they 
were by no means, as represented by some writers of 
fiction, mere sinless creatures of love and light. The 
popular author, Hermann Melville, has humorously 
written of the felicity of their condition, with "no 
taxes to pay, no mortages to be foreclosed, without the 
everlasting strife of civilized nations for money." But 
they did not merely enjoy freedom and frolic and love- 



IO THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

making. Savage strife often embittered their lives. 
Wars among them were almost incessant and most cruel. 
Rev. John Williams once visited Hervey Island, and 
found that its population had been diminished by war 
from two thousand to sixty. Seven years afterwards he 
again visited this island, and found that there were only 
five men and three women surviving ; and these were 
still contending who should be king. 

In all these islands immorality was appalling, and 
frightful crimes of frequent occurrence. Infanticide was 
so common that from one fourth to two thirds of the 
children were strangled or buried alive. The sick and 
the aged were so commonly killed that few persons died 
natural deaths. Cannibalism was practiced in many 
of the islands. In Hawaii and in a few other islands it 
was unknown ; but in the Marquesas and the Fiji Is- 
lands it prevailed with horrors unsurpassed elsewhere in 
the world. Distressing superstitions darkened all the 
lives of the natives and held them in iron bondage. In 
the long night of their isolation from enlightening in- 
fluences they had come to worship innumerable gods 
and demigods and demons, with which they supposed 
the sky and earth and sea to swarm. With this wor- 
ship were combined painful restrictions, called tabu, div- 
ination, sorcery, the use of charms to cure sickness, 
and black arts to employ evil spirits in destroying their 
enemies. Their worship was also accompanied with 
human sacrifices and wild carousals that have been 
described as like orgies of the infernal regions. 

It should be noted that these races were not utterly 



THE OCEAN, ITS ISLANDS AND PEOPLES. II 

evil nor utterly wretched. Paganism does not make men 
fiends. Some remnants of man's nobler nature survive 
his fall. In the wild barbarism of these islanders some 
forms of social order and civil government existed, and 
beautiful instances occurred of friendship and parental 
and conjugal affection ; and there was much of com- 
fort and enjoyment in their beautiful surroundings, with 
their balmy climate and profusion of delicious fruits. 
But with the best that may be said of their condition it 
must be admitted that it was not to be envied, but was 
calculated only to excite pity and call for benevolent en- 
terprise in their behalf. 



12 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



CHAPTER II. 

UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES FROM CIVILIZED COUNTRIES. 

Deplorable as was the primitive condition of the 
Pacific Islanders, it was rendered even worse by evil in- 
fluences that came to them from enlightened nations. 
Among the early voyagers to the Pacific were indeed 
some worthy men, who led irreproachable lives and ex- 
erted good influences. But most of the new-comers 
plunged into every form of dissipation. It became pro- 
verbial that in coming to this far-away ocean many men, 
even from the best circles of society, "hung up their 
consciences off Cape Horn," and seemed to conclude 
that "God did not rule west of America." Some of 
these adventurers were from the worst classes of civilized 
communities; from the dark corruption that seethes in 
great cities, and pours forth only to blight and blast 
wherever the ships of commerce sail. The histories of 
some of these men would be darker than those of the 
heathen themselves. 

The first to sail on the waters of this ocean were the 
explorers, who, after Magalhaes' discovery of the strait 
at the southern extremity of South America, went thither 
in great numbers to search for gold. Foremost among 
these were the Spaniards ; and these, with many other 
early navigators, belonged chiefly to the same class of 
buccaneers who under Cortes devastated Mexico, and 



UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 13 

under Pizarro did sad work in Peru. As might be sup- 
posed, many of these navigators were guilty of great 
excesses and atrocities in the Pacific Islands. The fact 
that the colony formed by them at Tahiti in those early 
times gave to that island the name, " Isla D'Amat," in- 
dicates the style of life they led. 

After these Spaniards came navigators from other 
nations, among whom was the English Lieutenant Bligh, 
whose mutinous crew, after setting him adrift in a boat, 
led a wild life of drunkenness and murder on Pitcairn 
Island. No one of these navigators ranked higher in 
scientific attainments and character than Capt. James 
Cook ; yet one of the historians of his voyages, Mr. 
George Foster, who accompanied him as a naturalist, 
narrates that at Tahiti and other islands further west 
his vessels were sometimes the scene of indescribable 
debaucheries with the natives, and that often these 
were cruelly treated and more than once killed by his 
officers for trivial offences. A murder of this kind at 
Hawaii was doubtless the chief cause of the massacre of 
the great navigator himself. From the conduct of this 
expedition, led by so respectable a man, it can be in- 
ferred how scandalous must have been the behavior of 
the seamen of ships commanded by sensual and brutal 
captains. 

The next class of adventurers to visit this ocean was 
the traders, who came to search on the northwest coast 
of America for furs and in the islands of the Tropics for 
sandal-wood, beche-de-mer (a marine slug), copra (dried 
cocoanut), and pearl shells. The sandal-wood was 



14 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

sought for sale in China, where it brought high prices 
for use as incense in idol-worship ; the beche-de-mer 
also was sold to the Chinese, who used it for food ; and 
the furs and copra and pearl shells were taken to Europe. 
Sometimes one vessel would engage in all these forms 
of trade, going first to the Arctic for furs, then to the 
Tropics for sandal-wood, and finally taking silks and 
tea from China to Europe. The profits of these trades 
were very great, but the conduct of the traders towards 
the islanders was even worse than that of the explorers. 
They often gave sad lessons of treachery and cruelty, 
which all too well the natives practised in return. 

"In 1842 three English vessels visited the island 
Vate, of the New Hebrides, and there took by force a 
large quantity of fruits and vegetables and two hundred 
hogs. The natives made resistance, and a fight ensued 
in which twenty-six natives were killed and the remain- 
der of the natives driven to take refuge in a cave. The 
crews of the ships then piled wood at the mouth of the 
cave, and set it on fire and suffocated all within. The 
next year the crew of the Cape packet were massacred 
at this island. 

"At Mare, of the New Hebrides, three natives once 
swam off to a vessel that called for sandal-wood, and 
while bargaining got into an altercation with the captain. 
He fired on them, killing two ; the third swam ashore. 
A few months afterwards the crew of the Lady Ann 
were massacred at this island." 

It was to avenge such outrages as these that the mis- 
sionary, Rev. John Williams, was murdered by the na- 



UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 15 

tives of Erromanga. The early missionaries at Hawaii 
remarked of some of these traders that they made their 
vessels "like floating exhibitions of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah," and that their influence was only "to make the 
Hawaiians a nation of drunkards. " 

The infernal spirit of some of these traders was shown 
by an outrage they committed at Tanna, of the New 
Hebrides, which is recounted by Rev. John G. Paton in 
his interesting Autobiography. During the year i860 
three captains came to Port Resolution, of Tanna, and 
gleefully informed Mr. Paton that to humble the Tan- 
nese and to diminish their number they had put on shore 
at different ports four young men ill with the measles. 
As Mr. Paton remonstrated they exclaimed, ' ' Our watch- 
word is, ' Sweep these creatures away and let white men 
occupy the soil. ' They then invited a chief by the name 
of Kapuku on board one of their vessels, promising him 
a present, and confined him for twenty-four hours with- 
out food in the hold among natives ill with the measles, 
and finally sent him ashore without a present to spread 
the disease. "The measles thus introduced spread fear- 
fully, and decimated the population of the island. In 
some villages men, women and children were stricken 
down together, and none could give food or water to the 
sick or bury the dead. " 

The sandal-wood trade was followed in 1828 by the 
whale fishery. The ships engaged in this business often 
visited the islands to obtain supplies or to spend the win- 
ter. The writer has seen as many as a hundred of them 
at one time at the port of Lahaina, of the Hawaiian 



l6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Islands. When the crews of these ships took their fur- 
loughs on shore they easily had everything their own 
way, and sometimes made bedlam of the quiet villages 
of the natives. 

When the whale fishery declined, on account of the 
discovery of coal-oil, numerous agricultural enterprises 
were started in some of the islands and vessels were sent 
to the western part of the Pacific to procure laborers for 
these enterprises. These vessels were sometimes sent 
out under trustworthy officials, who took care that the 
laborers were taken only with their voluntary consent 
and with well-explained contracts for wages and for their 
free return to their island homes. But irresponsible par- 
ties sometimes undertook to supply plantations in Aus- 
tralia and Fiji by methods as infamous as the slave-trade 
of Africa. A captain of a small vessel would sometimes 
get clearance-papers from Sydney for trading in copra 
and trepang, and then cruise to kidnap the natives who 
would come off in canoes with supplies. Sometimes he 
would assume the guise of a missionary. Painting his 
vessel white, that it might resemble the mission packets, 
he would approach an island with a white flag flying, and 
on arriving at port go ashore dressed like a respectable 
gentleman, wearing spectacles, carrying an umbrella over 
his head and a Bible under his arm. As the natives joy- 
fully flocked to meet him, he would invite them aboard 
his ship and into his cabin, and then suddenly seize and 
manacle them, and put his vessel to sea amid the cries 
of their relatives and friends in the surrounding canoes. 

An outrage of this kind occasioned the death of 



UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 17 

Bishop Patteson, of the Melanesian Mission. "Some 
traders once painted their ship in imitation of his, and 
by this artifice were able to kidnap some natives from 
the island of Nakapu, of the Swallow Group, for the pur- 
pose of sending them to plantations in Queensland and 
Fiji. When the missionary ship, as it cruised among 
the islands, again approached Nakapu, the natives, mis- 
taking it for the kidnapping craft, determined to avenge 
themselves. The bishop, unsuspicious, lowered his boat 
and went to meet them coming in their canoes. Accord- 
ing to their custom they asked him to get into one of 
their boats, which he did, and was taken to the shore. 
He was never seen alive again. Immediate search was 
made and his body was found, pierced with five wounds 
and wrapped in a coarse mat, with a palm-leaf laid on 
his breast." 

This infamous traffic in human flesh has been recently 
carried on for furnishing laborers to plantations in Gua- 
temala and South America. In 1890 the ship Alma 
took 400 natives of Micronesia to Guatemala, and two 
years afterwards only 180 of them were living, the rest 
having died of fevers contracted in the malarious swamps 
of the plantations. In 1892 the brig Tahiti took 300 
natives from the Gilbert Islands to labor on plantations 
in America, and was capsized near the coast of Mexico, 
and afterwards found floating bottom up. Not one of 
its living freight was ever heard of. 

On the 23d of April of the same year the steamer 
Monserrat, Capt. W. H. Ferguson, manager, and Capt. 
Blackburn, sailing-master, cleared from San Francisco 



l8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

ostensibly for a trading voyage to Nanaimo, but really 
for a kidnapping expedition to the Gilbert Islands. 
The publishers of the newspaper "Examiner," of San 
Francisco, secretly sent a reporter, Mr. W. H. Brom- 
mage, as one of the crew, from whose narrative the fol- 
lowing items are culled. 

Mr. Ferguson had made a bargain with the planters 
of San Jose* de Guatemala that they should pay him $100 
per head for laborers. With such an inducement he 
"shipped " all he could get by fair means or foul, wheth- 
er little children, or men and women bent over with age 
and hardly able to walk up the gangway of the steamer. 
The chief inducement of the natives to embark on 
the steamer was the hope that they might earn money on 
the plantations to pay the heavy debts of their king, on 
account of which their lands were held by treacherous 
traders. Many of the natives had died of starvation 
because they were forbidden by the traders to gather 
their own cocoanuts. They ' ' shipped " for seven dol- 
lars per month for labor for five years. The form of the 
contracts that were made with them was legitimate, but 
they were entrapped into making them by deceit, vio- 
lence and cruelty, and the amount of wages contracted 
for was entirely inadequate to yield them the profit they 
expected, while most of them would die in the fever- 
stricken marshes to which they were going. 

Mr. Ferguson arrived first at the island Marakei, of 
the Gilbert group, and here for awhile was unable to ship 
any adult natives. He therefore seized four boys, and 
locked them up over night. Three of them escaped ; 



UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. igi 

and the fourth was taken aboard the steamer. The 
parents begged piteously for his release and, not obtain- 
ing it, finally " shipped" to accompany him. This ruse 
was again tried. Children were kidnapped and held till 
their heart-broken parents, rather than leave them to be 
carried forever away, embarked to go with them. The 
parting of others from their parents was heart-rending. A 
chief of Apaiang went off to the steamer with his wife to 
bid good-by to their son and give him presents. Capt. 
Ferguson, seeing cocoanuts in the chief's boat, applied 
for them, but was informed that they were for the chief's 
son. Furious with rage he drove back the parents from 
ascending the gangway and cut their boat adrift. The 
chief offered to bring cocoanuts for him, if he might be 
permitted to see his boy, but was refused. With the 
mother weeping bitterly they were forced to leave, never 
to see their boy again. Several times some of the natives 
tried to escape, but were fired upon while swimming away 
and generally were recovered. Some of them piteously 
offered beads and necklaces, all the valuables they had, 
to be permitted to escape, but in vain. 

By these and other perfidious and violent methods 
Capt. Ferguson obtained 400 natives, of whom 388 were 
laborers and the remainder children. They were secured 
as follows : 3 from Butaritari, 40 from Marakei, 6 from 
Tarava, 8 from Miana, 40 from Apaiang, 107 from Non- 
outi, 97 from Tapiteuea, 22 from Peru, and 5 from 
Nukuwor. 

On their voyage to America they suffered greatly from 
uncomfortable accommodation, lack of drinking-water, 



20 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

and exposure to the weather. After their arrival at Guate- 
mala it was remarked by the planters that within a year 
seventy-five per cent, of them would die of fevers. 

Rev. John G. Paton, of the New Hebrides Mission, 
has stated that "the Kanaka labor-traffic has destroyed 
many thousands of the natives in colonial slavery, and 
largely depopulated the islands either directly or indirect- 
ly, by spreading disease and vice, misery and death, 
among them even at the best, at the worst tasking many 
of them till they perished at their toils, shooting down 
others under one or other guilty pretence, and positively 
sweeping thousands to an untimely grave. A common 
cry on the lips of the slave-hunters was, ' Let them perish, 
and let the white man occupy these islands." 3 He has 
estimated that 70,000 Pacific Islanders have been taken 
from their homes by slave-hunters. 

Besides transient visitors, there were many men from 
civilized countries who made their permanent home in 
the Pacific Islands and exerted a more abiding influ- 
ence. Frequently seamen were attracted by the enchant- 
ing beauty of the islands to desert their ships and live 
with the natives. Some of these "run-away sailors" 
were worthy men and exerted excellent influences. Some 
of them became missionaries, and greatly promoted the 
good of the natives. But the greater number of them 
led sensual and brutal lives, and some of them became 
even worse than the natives ; for civilized men turned 
savage become the worst of savages. 

In the year 1834 the American missionaries found on 
the island of Nukuhiva, of the Marquesas group, one oi 



UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 21 

these "run-away sailors," a man by the name of Mellish, 
who claimed to be the son of an English nobleman and 
that he had been sent to sea as a bad boy to be reformed. 
He was tattooed all over except on his face, and was al- 
most entirely nude. His chief delight was in attending 
native feasts ; for which he would often climb over the 
steepest and highest ridges of the island. He remarked 
that this was the "happiest period of his life. " On the 
same island another of these ' ' run-aways, " by the name of 
Morrison, formed a diabolical plan to massacre the mis- 
sionaries in order to obtain their few articles of property ; 
but before he could accomplish his purpose he suddenly 
died in consequence of excessive gluttony. It has been 
ascertained that many piracies of vessels and massacres 
of seamen in the Southern Pacific have been instigated 
and conducted by men of this stripe. 

One of these men was the notorious pirate, called 
"Bully Hayes," who began his career by kidnapping 
from San Francisco a vessel loaded with lumber. He sold 
the lumber in Mexico, and then sailed to China, and there 
took aboard his vessel a large number of coolies for New 
South Wales. As a capitation tax of five dollars a head 
was required to be paid for introducing coolies into New 
South Wales he was supplied with money for paying it. 
He skilfully contrived to retain this money and get rid 
of the coolies. On arriving off New South Wales he put 
up a flag of distress and flooded the hold of his vessel 
from his fresh-water casks, and when a vessel came to his 
relief he showed by the fresh water that his vessel was 
rapidly leaking, as he was pumping clear water, and re- 



22 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

marked that he could take care of his vessel if he could 
be relieved of his coolies. The captain who had come 
for his assistance kindly took the coolies aboard his ves- 
sel ; whereupon Hayes put to sea, and soon was out of 
sight. The captain who took the coolies was afterwards 
obliged to pay the tax for landing them. 

Hayes was next heard of at the Micronesian Islands, 
where he undertook to buy a larger vessel loaded with 
rice. Being permitted to try the vessel before purchasing 
her, he put to sea on her, and was not again seen by the 
owner. Hayes had wives and children on many of the 
islands. Once he upset a boat with one of his wives and 
some of his children, in order to get rid of them ; but as 
they could swim as well as he they all escaped to land. 
Rev. John G. Paton tells how "the notorious Hayes 
once sent an armed band inland on Tanna, who night 
after night robbed and plundered whatever came to hand. 
The natives, seeing the food of their children ruthlessly 
stolen, made objection, and were shot down without 
mercy. Glad were we, " says Mr. Paton, ' ' when a ves- 
sel carried away these white heathen savages. ; ' Hayes led 
a wild life of sensuality, cruelty, and piracy, and at last 
was killed by one of his mates, whom he had maltreated, 
on one of the vessels he had stolen from San Francisco. 

The most desperate class of settlers in the Pacific 
Islands were the convicts from Europe. In 1804 a num- 
ber of these escaped from New South Wales, and settled 
at Mbau and Rewa of the Fiji group, Viti Levu. Because 
of their use of firearms they were regarded by the natives 
as supernatural beings, and thereby gained unbounded in- 



UNCIVILIZING INFLUENCES. 23 

fluence. They made no effort to acquire dominion over 
the island, but sought only to gratify their vilest passions. 
There were twenty-seven of these lawless men ; but in a 
few years most of them had fallen in the wars of the 
natives and in quarrels with each other. Their dissipation 
and cruelty amazed even the cannibal Fijis. 

The dark record that has been given of the conduct of 
enlightened races in the Pacific affords only a faint view of 
the mischiefs they have done. Besides their barbarities 
and felonious conquests and usurpations of dominion over 
the islands, they have introduced intoxicating liquors and 
new diseases, and thereby caused a terrible mortality of 
the native races. Rev. John Paton has reported that 
recently on one of the New Hebrides Islands the pop- 
ulation was suddenly diminished sixty per cent by the 
introduction of poisonous gin. The native population of 
the Hawaiian Islands had diminished, since their discovery 
in 1778, from 400,000 to 32,000; that of the Marquesas 
from 50,000 to 4,500 and that of Strong's Island, in 
Micronesia, from 6,000 to 600. A similar diminution has 
occurred in almost all the islands of the Pacific. 

A cheap way of explaining this diminution has been to 
attribute it to the influence of civilization and Christianity. 
It has been said that the mistakes made by the islanders 
in adapting themselves to the changed conditions in 
Christian civilization caused them to contract many 
diseases which produced great mortality. 

It may be answered that, if any natives died because of 
mistakes in adopting Christian civilization, the number of 
them is too small to account for the awful diminution of 



24 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

the population ; that Christian civilization, with its in- 
centives to industry and morality, does not destroy com- 
munities, but, as is shown in the following chapters, con- 
serves them ; and that it has been proved beyond question, 
by physicians, that diseases introduced by the vices and 
intemperance of the white races have been the causes of 
the decimation of the native populations. 

More deplorable than the diminution of these populations 
has been the deeper barbarism caused by the influences 
from civilized countries. The result of the untold outrages 
perpetrated by foreigners, in return for the generous 
hospitality of the natives, and of the introduction of 
firearms and ardent spirits, has sometimes been that the 
simplehearted islanders have been changed almost into 
fiends. The saddest thing for a heathen people is to 
come into contact with civilization without Christianity. 



uo 13ft m 



MARQUESAS 

O ft 

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Hiau I. 



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TAtuhivAorP 



INFLUENCES OF SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. 25 



CHAPTER III. 

INFLUENCES OF SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. THE MARQUESAS 

ISLANDS. 

The influence of Roman Catholic Missions have been 
little better for uplifting pagan races than have been those 
of non-Christian civilizations. Of this we have in the 
Marquesas Islands one of the best illustrations. Of all the 
tribes in the Pacific islands the natives of this group were, 
by their external environment and their racial charac- 
teristics, the best fitted to withstand deleterious influences, 
to hold their own in struggles for existence, and to rise 
into civilization. 

The islands, they occupied, did not resemble the low 
atolls on which there are hardly any food-producing 
plants, and on which sometimes many of the natives die 
of starvation, nor were they like some of the southwest 
Pacific islands that are infested with malaria, and on which 
the natives are a puny, emaciated and effeminate people. 
The Marquesas Islands are high, picturesque, salubrious, 
and very productive. 

These islands lie in two parallel groups, thirteen in all, 
trending from southeast to northwest, between latitudes 8° 



26 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

and u° south, and longitudes 133 and 150 west. The 
southern group was discovered July 21, 1595, by Alvaro 
Mendana de Neyra, as he was voyaging with four ships to 
colonize the Solomon Islands, and by him named Mar- 
quesas de Mendoca, in honor of the Viceroy of Peru. The 
northern group, though near by, was not discovered until 
1 79 1, nearly two hundred years later, when they were seen 
by Capt. Ingraham, of Boston, and named Washington 
Islands. But the term, Marquesas, now embraces both 
groups. 

It seems to be the rule that in the Eastern Pacific the 
mountains are more wild, broken and picturesque than in 
the Western Pacific. The terrific storms of the western 
part of that ocean have not reached the eastern part with 
sufficient violence to cause excessive erosion, nor have 
frosts prevailed to disintegrate the beetling cliffs, the sharp 
ridges and the spire-like crags, but all the mountain forms, 
even the most frail and fragile, still stand almost as when 
originally upheaved and rent by volcanic forces. 

The coasts of these islands rise abruptly from the ocean 
with frowning precipices, rugged promontories and rocky 
crags. The inland portions are deeply cleft by valleys, 
many of which are separated by ridges so precipitous and 
lofty that they cannot be crossed by man, and from the 
summits rise lofty rocks and sky-piercing peaks. Over 
almost every pinnacle a carpet of vines, ferns and pampas- 
like grasses extends, and adown the perpendicular preci- 
pices a tapestry of verdure hangs. Between the rugged 
ridges there are valleys filled with the richest vegetation 
of palms, breadfruit, hibiscus, banyans, and other trees. 



INFLUENCES OF SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. 2J 

The cocoanut extends far up the mountain slopes, and 
waves its plumes at heights of two thousand feet above 
sea-level 

The largest of these islands is Nukuhiva, named by its 
discoverer Marchand. It is seventy miles in circumfer- 
ence, and 4,000 feet in height at its highest peak. On its 
southern side is the bay, Taiohae, or Anna Maria, " which 
is shaped like a horseshoe and is two miles deep, a mile 
broad at the centre and half a mile at the entrance, where 
it is flanked by two grand headlands over 500 feet high." 
Says H. Melville ("Typee"): "No description can do 
justice to the beauty of the scenery of this bay. The 
mountains shut in a vast amphitheatre of deep glens, over- 
grown with vines and gleaming with cascades. I felt 
regret that a scene so enchanting was hidden from the 
world in these remote seas." 

About forty miles south of this island is Uapou, or Adam 
Island, a vast amphitheatre of rugged hills which send 
down their spurs to the shore, buttressed by lofty preci- 
pices. From its spine, three thousand feet high, rise, 
like the spires of a cathedral, seven shafts of rock nearly 
eight hundred feet higher. 

East of this island, about sixty miles distant, is Hivaoa, 
named La Dominica by Mendana, because discovered on 
the Sabbath Day. On the northeast side of this island is 
the valley Puamau (Ever-blooming), " one mile in length 
and one-half mile wide, a paradise of natural loveliness, 
charming forever with the music of its rippling stream." 
On its southern side is Atuona, the most verdant valley in 
the Marquesas. 



28 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

At a little distance south of Hivaoa is Tahuata, or 
Christiana. Its valley, Vaitohu, at Resolution Bay on the 
West, one-half mile wide by one-half deep, is shut in by 
rugged precipices 2,000 feet high, and filled with bread- 
fruit, cocoanut, guava, and other trees. 

The southernmost island of this group is Fatuhiva, called 
also Magdalena. Its chief valley is Onoa, one mile wide 
and three miles deep, having five lateral branches one-half 
a mile deep, all walled in by towering precipices and filled 
with magnificent vegetation. 

Such islands were well adapted to develop a sturdy, 
athletic and independent spirited race. And such were 
the Marquesans. Of them Capt. Cook, who visited them 
in 1774, wrote, " the people of these islands are, without 
exception, the finest in this sea. For admirable shape 
and regular features they perhaps surpass all nations." 
Capt. Belcher, of the British ship Sulphur, described them 
as " well-formed, active, powerful, their gait and carriage 
easy, independent, proud, reminding one of the high- 
bred horse." 

Another writer has described them as physically the 
most perfect of the human species, many of them six feet 
high, muscular, symmetrical, agile, graceful, and lighter in 
complexion than the Tahitians." The American mis- 
sionaries remarked that " they were more noble in form 
and stature than the Hawaiian s, and the women, vile 
though they were, more comely, though some of the people 
were horribly tattooed." Rev. Hiram Bingham, of Hawaii, 
said of them : " The men were distinguished more for 
pride and independence of feeling than any other natives 




Marquesan in Ancient Costume. 



INFLUENCES OF SPURIOUS CHRISTIANITY. 29 

of the Pacific isles. Our missionaries were struck with 
the lofty air with which these swarthy sons of ignorance 
would pace the deck of a foreign vessel, as if the ship 
and the ocean were at their command, though they were 
as poor as Robinson Crusoe's goats." 

In character the Marquesans were simply, like the other 
races of the Pacific, pagan, degraded, barbarian. Because 
of the alarming appearance they acquired by disfiguring 
their persons, and because of their constant warfare, their 
cannibalism, and the swift vengeance they visited upon 
foreigners that abused them, they acquired the reputation 
of being the wildest and fiercest savages of the Pacific. 
They disfigured themselves by tattooing their faces with 
broad black bands, or with pictures of sharks, lizards and 
other animals with open mouths and distended claws. 
Mrs. Alexander has remarked of her first view of them : 
" They made me think of devils. They had long hair tied 
in two bunches on top of their heads. Strings of shark's 
teeth were strung around their necks, and tufts of human 
hair bound around their waists and ankles. Their chiefs 
wore chaplets binding on the brow a mother-of-pearl shell, 
and on top tall bird feathers." 

Separated into clans, as they were, by almost impassable 
ridges, they were continually at warfare ; for 

" Mountains interposed 
Make enemies of nations, who had else, 
Like kindred drops, been mixed into one." 

The chief cause of their wars was their cannibalism. 
Sometimes a band of them would go at night by canoe to 
a distant bay, land, stealthily surround a house, kill all 



30 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

within, and then flee with the dead bodies to their home, 
and there conduct a cannibal feast. The people of the 
distant bay would retaliate by a similar act, and thus a 
savage war would be occasioned. 

Their primitive immorality and ferocity were increased 
by their intercourse with people from civilized countries. 
At first they welcomed the foreigners ; but the murders 
committed by their first discoverer, Mendaiia, in firing 
volleys of shot among them, because of petty thefts, by 
Capt. Cook in killing one of them for a similar offence, by 
Commodore Porter in needlessly raiding Typee Valley, 
because of a tribal war, and many other outrages by 
foreigners, rendered them fierce to wreak vengeance on 
every white man coming to their shores. In this they 
actedi, not so much from savagery, as from a sense of 
justice, and were hardly worse than the other tribes of the 
Pacific, not as bad as some of them. Their superiority in 
physique and mentality caused them to display greater 
boldness, spirit and fierceness in their wickedness; but 
this same superiority rendered them the more capable of 
resisting abuse, overcoming evil influences, and attaining 
a high development. 

In this group spurious Christian Missions had full op- 
portunity ; for here genuine Christian Missions were not 
prosecuted with vigor, and here they achieved almost no 
success. To clearly and fully understand this, a brief 
review of the history of these missions is necessary. In 
considering this history we must anticipate somewhat 
the account of the origin of Christian Missions, given in 
the following chapters. 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 31 

Missionary work was commenced on these islands 
about as early as anywhere in the Pacific. When, in 
1797, Capt Wilson of the Duff brought the first mission- 
ary company to the South Seas he landed two of them, 
Messrs. Harris and Crook, on June 5, 1797, at Vaitohu 
on the island of Tahuata (Christiana). 

The chief, Tenai, welcomed them, and gave them 
each a house. The native women flocked around them 
and, being astonished that they were repelled, dealt so 
roughly with Mr. Harris in the night that the next morn- 
ing he returned to the ship, protesting that he would not 
reside among such a people. 

44 His partner, Mr. Crook, remained alone on Tahua- 
ta eight months. At the end of that time, May 22, 1798, 
Capt. Fanning of the brig Betsy arrived off the island ; 
and several canoes went to hail him and pressed him to 
anchor, which he was unwilling to do, being ignorant 
of the harbors. A heavy shower of rain coming on, the 
vessel was deserted in a moment by the visitors, when a 
small canoe darted out to meet it, manned by only two 
persons. As it drew near, it was with profound aston- 
ishment that the captain heard a man, dressed in Mar- 
quesan style and nearly as dark as the natives, call out, 
' Sir, I am an Englishman, and I have come to you to 
save my life.' This was the Rev. Wm. Pascoe Crook. 
No sooner had he reached the deck than, yielding to his 
emotion, he kneeled down and thanked God for his de- 
liverance. Then he stated that he was a missionary, and 
that the disposition of the natives towards him had been 
most alarming. Twice he had owed his life to the pro- 



32 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

tection of the chief who accompanied him on board ; 
and had it not been for him he would long before have 
been killed and eaten. His chief persecutor had been 
a runaway sailor, an Italian, who deserted a merchant- 
man soon after the departure of the Duff and by the use 
of a gun gained great power over the natives. This man 
had sought to murder Mr. Crook, as being an obstacle to 
his influence, and now proposed to capture the Betsy in 
order to renew his stock of ammunition. Mr. Crook's 
movements had been watched ; and it was only under 
cover of the rainstorm that he had been able to hail the 
Betsy and warn her captain. Liberal presents were 
made to the chief, who had brought off Mr. Crook at 
the risk of his life. The parting between the two friends 
was very touching. 

"Three days later the Betsy arrived at Taiohae Bay 
in Nukuhiva, and here Mr. Crook found the natives so 
friendly that he left the ship and took up his residence 
among them. But again he was obliged to flee for his 
life to a passing ship, and returned to Tahiti. 

' ' For twenty-seven years now these islands remained 
without missionaries. In January, 1825, Mr. Crook 
went thither in the Lynx, Capt. Sibrill (son-in-law of 
the missionary Henry, of Tahiti), with two native teach- 
ers from Huahine, and was joyfully welcomed by the 
natives of Tahuata. The women recited a ballad in his 
honor as the adopted son of the late chief Tenai. He 
left the two teachers at Hanatete, on the east side of the 
island, but at the end of two months they fled to Ta- 
hiti. 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. $J 

"Again, in October, 1828, four teachers were con- 
veyed by the same Capt. Sibrill in the ship Minerva to 
these islands. Two of them landed at Tahuata, but 
soon after fled from the island just as the natives were 
about to sacrifice them to their gods. The other two 
settled at Uapoa but were expelled by the natives, who 
declared them hypocrites, and that their lives did not 
accord with their teachings. 

"In 1829 Messrs. Pritchard and Simpson, of the 
Tahiti Mission, went to renew their mission work or 
these islands, but * did not like the looks of things, ' and 
returned to Tahiti." (Maile Wreath.) 

Not long after this Rev. Charles Stewart, who had 
been seamen's chaplain at Lahaina, Hawaiian Islands, 
visited Nukuhiva while chaplain of the United States 
war-ship Vincennes, and afterwards urged the American 
Board to undertake mission work in these islands. In 
compliance with his suggestions Rev. Messrs. R. Arm- 
strong, B. F. Parker and W. P. Alexander were sent 
thither in 1833. The detailed narratives of these mis- 
sionaries give vivid pictures of the people, and well por- 
tray the condition of missionaries laboring among a sav- 
age race. 

On the 10th of August, 1833, they arrived at Taio- 
hae, Nukuhiva. "As soon as we arrived," says Mrs. 
Armstrong, ' ' the natives came off in great numbers, the 
women swimming and holding by one hand their white 
tapas, their only garment, out of the water. The deck 
was soon crowded with men, women and children, most 
of them entirely naked, a few having only a strip of tapa 



34 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

around the waist, all making a deafening noise. At 
sight of the women and children of the mission families 
they were greatly excited, jumping on the deck with loud 
shouts of laughter, and all the talk fore and aft was 
' vahine ' and ' pikanini ' (women and children). " 

The ladies remained below in the cabin until the 
captain, by throwing hard bread to the front of the ves- 
sel, gathered the natives forward, and then put up a 
board fence, and through an interpreter informed them 
that the ladies would come on deck, and could be seen, 
if they would remain at the fore part of the vessel. As 
soon as the ladies had come on deck the natives shouted 
il Moatake" (good). Mrs. Alexander had a babe three 
months old whom the women admired and begged for. 
Swimming beside the ship they showed how they could 
hold him out of water, and proposed to make him their 
king. Most probably they would have put him into one 
of their baking-ovens. 

At evening the captain persuaded the natives to go 
ashore, with the promise that the next day the mission- 
aries would land. Some of the wild men immediately 
proposed to exchange wives with the missionaries. " As 
we gazed at the island," says Mrs. Armstrong, "it baf- 
fled comprehension that beings so vile should be placed 
in scenes so beautiful." 

On the 1 2th of August the missionaries went on 
shore and visited Hape, the chief. He was sick, but 
was pleased to see them, and said he would give them 
the house he was then occupying. The savages every- 
where followed them shouMng, the women sometimes 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 3$ 

coming close and lifting the bonnets of the ladies for a 
fuller view, and exclaiming " Moatake!" 

On the 15th of August they all took up their abode 
in a house near the shore, furnished by Hape. It was 
fifty feet long, open all the length on one side to four 
feet above the ground, and thatched with breadfruit 
leaves shingled over each other. The floor was paved 
with smooth round stones. They closed the open side 
of the house with boards, made doors four feet high, 
formed windows by cutting away part of the breadfruit 
leaves from the bamboo framework, and partitioned the 
house by calico and sheeting into four rooms ; one of 
these rooms at the end was used for a store-room, the 
next was occupied by Mr. Parker's family, the next by 
Mr. Alexander's, and the next, near the beach and almost 
in the roaring surf, by Mr. Armstrong's family. At first 
the doors and windows were crowded almost to suffoca- 
tion by the savages gazing at them. Their cooking was 
done outside, under a spreading breadfruit tree, by pla- 
cing kettles on stones over the fire. It was the rainy 
season, so that out-door cooking was difficult. Some- 
times the natives would take the food out of the kettles 
by hooks and carry it away. 

The first work of the missionaries was to build com- 
fortable homes. The natives were hired by knives and 
fish-hooks to bring timber of breadfruit and cocoanut 
trees, and breadfruit leaves ; but they were very tantaliz- 
ing by their indolence. At length three houses were 
completed, placed so near together that the missionaries 
^ould call from one to the other. They were often 



36 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

made to tremble at night, when the savages would pass 
close by with flaming torches on their way from fishing. 
One touch of their torches would have set the houses all 
a-blaze. 

The missionaries were much troubled by the thievish 
propensities of the natives ; and for this reason set apart 
a special room in each house for receiving their visits. 
The natives would often thrust bamboo sticks with hooks 
through their lattice windows to take whatever they 
could reach ; and the missionaries often awoke at night 
to find them, with their poles thrust through the win- 
dows, taking clothing or anything they could get, or 
pulling up the thatch to take whatever they could reach; 
sometimes not one native only, but a gang of thieves 
stealing at the same time at different parts of the house. 
"It was most annoying," says Mrs. Alexander, "to see 
their black faces peering through the windows, and 
through openings they tore through the thatch. I dared 
not look at them ; for I was sure to see a look that 
would fill me with disgust and horror. " 

The missionaries went out every day among them 
with pencil and paper to learn words, and afterwards 
compared notes, and as they roamed about were de- 
lighted with the rich and beautiful scenery. The groves 
of breadfruit, cocoanut, and papaia, and a great variety 
of thick vines and shrubbery, formed one almost un- 
broken shade. At almost every house they were hospi- 
tably received, and invited to eat breadfruit pot. 

On the fifth Sabbath after their arrival Mr. Alexander 
preached the first sermon, telling the natives of the van- 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 37 

ity of their gods, and of the true God. The big bread- 
fruit tree that had been used as a cook-house was now 
used as a church. The ladies sat under its shade on 
chairs, while the natives rushed around in noisy confu- 
sion. The preaching was no easy task, for the natives 
would smoke and talk and mimic ; some would lie and 
sleep, some laugh and talk, some mock and excite 
laughter ; here one would sit smoking a pipe, there one 
twisting a rope ; often there was such confusion that the 
preacher could hardly hear himself speak, and not unfre- 
quently the half of those present would arise and go off 
laughing and mocking. They were ready to gnash on 
the preacher with their teeth when told that their gods 
were false, and would often say " Tivava" (it is a lie). 
"Your God is good for you," they would say, "ours 
are good for us." When the preacher shut his eyes they 
asked, "Is your God blind, that you shut your eyes?" 
When an axe had been stolen they said, "You tell us 
your God is great and good, let him find the thief, if he is 
so great." One preacher, when describing heaven, was 
interrupted by the remark, ' ' That will be a good place 
for cowards and lazy folks, who are afraid to fight and 
too lazy to climb breadfruit and cocoanut trees. " 

Afterwards the missionaries preached by rotation 
every Sabbath, and after the 8th of December twice. 
They also preached in English to the few foreigners on 
the island. After four months' residence they were able 
to translate into Marquesan four hymns, which much 
pleased the natives and enlisted their attention. The 
last three months of their stay they were able to pray 



38 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

extempore in lffarquesan. Generally only twenty natives 
attended their meetings. Once one hundred and fifty 
attended. Mrs. Armstrong and the other ladies con- 
ducted a school for the children ; but only a few attend- 
ed, and that very irregularly ; and not more than half a 
dozen learned the alphabet. 

Mr. Alexander and Mr. Parker once undertook to 
explore the valley of Typee, with a view to make a mis- 
sion station there. With much difficulty they found a 
man who was a sort of neutral, that is, one permitted 
to go unharmed from one valley to another. Immedi- 
ately on arriving at the valley of Typee they were sur- 
rounded by a multitude of the savages vociferating 
fiercely. Seeing the white missionaries the natives 
called to mind how, in 1813, Capt. Porter of the United 
States ship Essex had attacked them, and one of them 
exclaimed, "Porter killed my father." Another said, 
"Porter killed my brother." Another, clapping his 
hand on his shoulder, said, "Porter shot me here." 
The missionaries were expecting to be killed, when their 
guide said to the natives, "These men are not like 
Porter. He came to fight ; but these men have come 
to teach us not to fight. " He then repeated very cor- 
rectly the sermons which the missionaries had preached. 
The natives then shouted " Moatake, " and conducted 
them to a house, where they spent the night, fearing 
that they would be clubbed before morning. But they 
were not disturbed, and the next morning were allowed 
to return home ; which they did, by the advice of their 
guide, by a different route from that of the previous day. 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 39 

During their absence their wives suffered much from 
fear of the natives. Says Mrs. Parker, "Mrs. Alexander 
proposed that I should come to her room and sleep with 
her, to beguile loneliness and share anxiety. About 
midnight we were startled by terrible savage yells, and 
the sounds came nearer and nearer. Whatever it might 
be it was headed in the direction of our homes. Our 
first anxiety was lest Mrs. Alexander's babe should 
awake frightened, and attract the attention of the sav- 
ages. Mrs. Alexander said to me, 'Our only refuge 
now is our God ; we will pray. ' The child slept on 
between us ; the sounds were deeper and nearer for 
a short period, and then grew fainter ; the crowd 
passed the house and went on in another direction, and 
we went to sleep undisturbed, under divine protection. 
In the morning we found that it was a religious proces- 
sion that had passed by. A shark had been taken by 
the fishermen ; and this was a god, to be worshipped in 
the only way they knew. " 

The hostility between the different valleys made the 
situation of these missionaries very insecure. They 
were several times informed that the Typees were com- 
ing in the night to kill them, and to take their property. 
But their most serious danger was from the foreigners, 
civilized men turned savage, who resided among the 
natives and were more dangerous than the natives. 
Such a man was a convict from New Zealand, known 
by the name of Morrison, of whom mention has been 
made. One night the missionaries were hastily sent for 
because he had suddenly become ill. The day previous 



40 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

a great school of porpoises had come into the bay, and 
the natives had caught them in such quantities that their 
bodies were piled up on the shore ; and for many days, 
even after putrefaction had begun, every one helped 
himself to their flesh as he pleased. This man gave his 
appetite full rein, and the consequence was that he 
had an attack of apoplexy and died at eleven o'clock at 
night. The natives now informed the missionaries that 
he had planned to fire their houses and murder them all, 
in order to obtain their few articles of property. Their 
hearts overflowed with gratitude to God for this provi- 
dential deliverance. They however determined to give 
the body a burial in Christian style, the first such burial 
on the island. They made a coffin out of their boxes, 
dug a grave, and with prayer lowered the body into it. 
A native then threw in a baked hog. Mr. Armstrong 
threw it out, and it was again thrown in, and again 
thrown out. The native then said, ' ' The soul of that 
man will come to me in the night and will say, ' You 
are stingy. I am hungry. ' " It was supposed that he 
afterwards dug into the grave and buried the pig along- 
side of the corpse. 

The chief, Hape, at length became quite unfriendly, 
for he was disappointed that the missionaries did not 
cure him of his illness and did not give him more pres- 
ents, for which he daily begged, and he urged the natives 
not to attend the meetings. 

On the fourth of December, 1833, he died. "The 
hills then echoed with wailing, the thumping of drums 
and the blowing of conch shells." The body was hung 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 41 

high in a canoe over the heiau (rock platform for wor- 
ship) and the first wife was obliged to remain continually 
in care of it, to provide food for the spirit, until the 
body had so far decayed that the bones could be picked 
out, which it was the privilege of the wife or the nearest 
relative to do. Mr. Alexander has given a description 
of the scenes he then witnessed. ' ' The funeral rites, " 
he says, " beggared description for obscenity, noise, 
cruelty, and beastly exposure. They lasted seven days, 
and were the darkest days I ever saw. Companies came 
from all parts, filling the air with loud wailings, dancing 
in a state of perfect nudity around the corpse like so 
many furies, cutting their flesh with shells and sharp 
stones till the blood trickled down to their feet, the wo- 
men tearing out their hair, both men and women knock- 
ing out their teeth, indulging in the most revolting 
licentiousness, and feasting to excess, while muskets were 
fired and sea-shells were kept a-blowing with a long deep 
sepulchral sound during the whole night. Verily I 
seemed to be for the time on the borders of the infernal 
regions." Mrs. Parker mentions that "Hape soon 
became a nuisance except when the wind favored us, 
blowing in another direction." 

After the missionaries had resided eight months 
on this island they were visited by Mr. Orsmond, a 
missionary from Tahiti, who had been making a mis- 
sionary tour looking after native missionaries in the 
Paumotu group. He informed them that the London 
Society had sent six missionaries for the Marquesas Isl- 
ands, that they had already sailed and would occupy the 



42 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

southern part of the group, and that it would be much 
easier for their mission to send supplies to missionaries 
here than it would be for the Hawaiian Mission ; since 
they, the English missionaries, had a mission packet that 
made regular trips to their out stations and the American 
missionaries had none. It was very plain that he desired 
the field to be given up to the London Missionary So- 
ciety. The American missionaries spent a day in fast- 
ing and p raying over the matter, and decided that it 
would be a wasteful expenditure for two distinct so- 
cieties each to employ a vessel annually to visit their 
missionaries in so small a field, and as the London So- 
ciety were unwilling to surrender the whole field they 
determined to leave it to them. Mrs. Alexander has re- 
marked, "It was very trying to us to leave, although 
we knew that missionaries were on their way to take our 
place. The people were in gross darkness, and I, for 
one, was willing to spend my life among them. " 

About this time some of the natives (Tais) among 
whom these missionaries were residing went in the night 
to the bay of the Taipis and killed two or three of them 
and offered them in sacrifice. The Taipis now threatened 
to invade the valley of the Tais and exterminate the 
missionaries. 

While the missionaries were expecting their attack two 
whale-ships came to the island for supplies and the mis- 
sionaries engaged passage on one of them, the Benjamin 
Rush, Capt. Coffin, to the Hawaiian Islands. They 
now had to contrive to get aboard the ship without the 
oposition of the natives. They secretly packed their 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 43 

£oods, darkening their windows lest they should be ob- 
served ; and then the ladies with their infants, two of 
whom had been born during their stay on the island, 
suddenly went to the boat with a file of sailors on each 
side. They were quickly surrounded by a great multi- 
tude of the savages, armed with spears and clubs, but 
they conciliated them by presents, and thereby succeed- 
ed in getting away from the shore. Their husbands 
came afterwards with the baggage. 

''Oh what a sense of relief we felt," says Mrs. Arm- 
strong, "when we were all on board ! It was a critical mo- 
ment, for the natives were like friction-matches, ready to 
explode on the slightest provocation ; and when (on the 
1 6th April, 1834) the sails were spread, and the shores 
of Nukuhiva receded from view, we gave thanks to God 
that during a residence there of over eight months he 
had saved us from the fury of that heathen race. " 

In October, 1834, the English missionaries, Mr. 
Rodgerson and his wife and Mr. Stall worthy, with four 
Tahitian teachers, arrived at the Marquesas Islands, and 
landed on Tahuata at Hanatete. After three years of 
labor and suffering Mr. and Mrs. Rodgerson abandoned 
the field, "being convinced that the islands were unfit 
to be the residence of civilized females. " Their books, 
furniture and clothing had been stolen piecemeal, their 
house once set on fire, and at times they had to go to 
other valleys to get breadfruit for food. During their 
residence two persons were killed and eaten near their 
houses. 

Mr. Stallworthy remained until 1841, a butt, as a 



44 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

French writer says, for the ridicule of the Tahuatans, 
" What will we get," they would say, " for hearing your 
lessons? You seem to wish to make speeches to us. 
Well, give us power; we will hear you afterwards." 

In 1839 another missionary, Mr. R. Thompson, arrived ; 
but in 1 84 1 they all abandoned the field and returned to 
Tahiti, not having achieved any success. 

In 1853 a great interest for missionary work in the Mar- 
quesas was awakened by a Marquesas chief, Matunui of 
Fatuhiva, who, having embarked with his son-in-law, a 
Hawaiian, on a whale ship, was stranded in Hawaii, and, 
to secure help, pitifully asked that missionaries should be 
sent to his benighted people. The Hawaiian churches 
were greatly moved, made large contributions, chartered a 
vessel, and sent with this chief two ordained Hawaiian 
ministers, Rev. James Kekela and Rev. Samuel Kauwea 
loha, and two deacons, with their wives, to Fatuhiva, 
where they arrived August 26, 1853. These missionaries 
labored together a while at Omoa on Fatuhiva, and finally 
separated to different islands. Rev. J. Kaivi, who had 
subsequently arrived with several other Hawaiians, and 
Rev. J. Bicknell, son of a missionary at Tahiti, remained 
at Omoa. Kaivi, after nineteen years of labor, in which 
he had conducted a small school and organized a small 
church, became deranged, and was removed to Hawaii. 
At about the same time Mr. Bicknell, also, removed to 
Hawaii, and there died. Rev. Samuel Kauwealoha went 
to Hivaoa, and there gathered a school of sixty pupils 
and a congregation of one hundred and forty-nine ; but in 
a war with the savages his house was torn down, and he 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 45 

and his wife barely escaped with their lives. They then 
went to Uapou, and there formed a female seminary which 
was spoken of as "the brightest gleam of light in the 
Marquesas." When once it was proposed in Hawaii to 
relinquish this mission, because of its cost and lack of 
success, Kauwealoha wrote back that he would continue 
at his work, and that, if his salary was discontinued, he 
would still labor, even though in so doing he should be 
obliged to resume the costume, or undress, of his fathers 
in their barbarous state. Now, in 1907, he still survives, 
over ninety years of age, with the exception of the wife of 
Kaukau, the only survivor of the Hawaiian missionaries in 
the group. 

Rev. James Kekela settled at Puamau on Hivaoa, where 
there were immense rock platforms on which stood six 
stone idols nine feet high. To this place sometimes a 
thousand savages gathered for barbaric sports, pagan 
orgies and cannibal feasts. 

It was to this place that, in 1864, Mr. Whalon, first of- 
ficer of the American ship, Congress, was brought, bound 
hand and foot, to be devoured by the savages. " A Peru- 
vian vessel had kidnapped from this region several natives, 
and the people were looking for an opportunity for revenge, 
and seized Mr. Whalon when he went ashore to trade for 
pigs, fowls, etc., stripped him of his clothing, and took him 
to this place of infernal rites, to be cooked and eaten. The 
savages then began to torment him, bending his thumbs and 
fingers backward, pulling his nose and ears, and brandishing 
their hatchets and knives close to his head. The following 
morning Kekela hastened thither, and begged for the life 



46 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

of the poor man. The savages were inexorable, saying 
that they relished human flesh, and that they were now to 
feast on a white man. Finally, for a gun and other articles 
Mr. Whalon was released. Kekela took him to his house 
and, with his intelligent wife, showed him the greatest 
kindness and attention, and finally restored him to his ship. 

" Mr. Lincoln was then President of the United States, 
and, hearing of this deed of Mr. Kekela, sent out the 
value of $500 — a gold watch, etc. — with a letter of com- 
mendation, as a reward for the rescue of an American 
citizen from death at the hands of Marquesan cannibals." 

At Hanatita, on the north side of this island, Rev. A. 
Kaukau made his residence, and at Atuona, on the south 
side, Rev. Z. Hapuku was located, and at these places 
small schools were established. 

From the inception of their work these missionaries 
were strenuously opposed by French Roman Catholic 
priests, whose operations we are now to consider. By the 
French Government the Hawaiian missionaries were for- 
bidden to conduct schools, except in the use of the French 
language, and in many other ways hindered in their work. 
For this reason the Hawaiian Evangelical Association 
committed the field to the Evangelical Missionary As- 
sociation of Paris; but it continued to sustain these 
Hawaiian missionaries. The Paris Association was unable 
to take charge of the field, and the Hawaiians, unaided 
and harassed, were unable to accomplish anything. Thus 
genuine Christian Missions have accomplished almost 
nothing in the Marquesas Islands, and the Roman Catholics 
have there had a free hand and full opportunity. 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 47 

To clearly and fully understand the nature and work of 
the missionary enterprise of these Roman Catholics we 
need to consider the origin of their missionary enterprise 
and the method by which it gained a foothold in this group. 
About the year 1825 the French Government entered into 
an arrangement with the Roman Catholic Order, named 
" The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and 
Mary," (having its headquarters in the Picpus Street of 
Paris, and for that reason called " The Picpusian Order,") 
for securing to France and to Catholicism the various 
island-groups of the Pacific. Priests of this order were to 
go to the islands, gather converts, obtain lands and political 
influence, and the French Government was -to protect 
them, and establish colonies where they labored. Under 
this arrangement Picpusian priests went to New Zealand, 
Hawaii, Tahiti and many other islands. 

The style of zeal with which these priests sought to save 
the souls of the savages is indicated by one of their reports 
from Tahiti, telling how they were accustomed to carry two 
flasks, one of perfumed water and the other of holy water, 
and how, in meeting a native mother with her babe, they 
would divert the attention of the mother by the perfumed 
water, and then secretly sprinkle on the babe a few drops 
of the holy water that would work its regeneration. In 
Hawaii they pretended to show miraculous power. An 
image of the Virgin was made to bow its head at the 
" Ave Marias " of a priest, but at length, in spite of 
repeated salutations, it would not bow ; and finally a 
native thrust out his head from a curtain in the rear and 
exclaimed " Ua moku ka kaula / " (The string is broken !) 



48 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

In Hawaii the priests were expelled, because of their 
effort to dethrone the Regent Queen, Kaahumanu, and 
because their worship of crucifixes was considered a viola- 
tion of a Hawaiian law forbidding idol-worship. They 
were brought back and a French warship extorted a heavy 
indemnity. Fortunately Hawaii was able to pay the in- 
demnity, and by skilful diplomacy to bind France and 
Great Britain jointly to respect her independence. In 
Tahiti also the priests were expelled for promoting re- 
bellion, and were brought back, and the consequences 
there, as will be shown, were worse than in Hawaii. At 
the northern end of the South New Zealand Island the 
priests established another mission, and a French frigate 
convoying a vessel carrying colonists was sent thither, to 
raise the French Flag, and declare French possession. On 
its way the frigate entered the Bay-Of- Islands in North 
New Zealand, and there its commander made known to 
an old friend of his, a captain of a British ship, his errand. 
This captain hastened with the news to Governor Hobson 
of North New Zealand, and by him was directed to go 
with all possible speed to the settlement of the priests, and 
there raise the British flag. This he did, and when the 
French frigate arrived the British flag had there been three 
days floating in the sunlight. The frigate then went with 
its colonists to Tahiti, and. there its commander made 
such demands on the Queen, Pomare, for indemnity, 
because of her expulsion of the priests, that she surrendered 
to France her sovereignty. She asked assistance from 
Great Britain, which country had engaged to uphold her 
independence ; but that country, in view of its rude action 



THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 49 

toward France in South New Zealand, refused to interfere ; 
and in a few years, by many battles, France acquired 
possession of all the Society, Tuamotu, Gambier, Austral, 
and Marquesas Islands. 

The seizure by France of the Marquesas Islands occurred 
over sixty years ago. In those islands, ever since, the 
dominant power has been the Roman Catholic Religion, 
and during this long period that religion has afforded a 
striking illustration of its nature and effects. 

The illustration is important, because in that group the 
Roman Catholics have been at a distant remove from the 
restraining influences that prevail in Christian countries, 
and thus free to act forth the true nature and produce the 
true results of their religious system. 

The illustration is important, because, also, the Roman 
Catholics have labored for this people with a strong force 
of missionaries. They have maintained in the group forty 
priests, as many lay brothers, and about as many nuns ; 
and these have been aided by the wealth, the Civil Govern- 
ment, the police, and the military power of France. 

The natural effects of the Roman Catholic religion, thus 
displayed, are to be seen, first, in the Roman Catholic 
missionaries themselves and in the Government officials 
and other foreigners in the group. A few of these mis- 
sionaries have exhibited sincere, if not genuine piety. 
Such was a Sister, Marie, who in France relinquished to 
the Jesuits a fortune of a million francs, and went to this 
group, to spend her life in labor for the savages ; and such 
was a lay-brother, who for fourteen years wore, welded 
around his waist, an iron chain ; but nearly all of these 



50 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

missionarieslhave led impure lives, and their Bishop, Martin, 
has had a very unenviable reputation for immorality. 
With a few exceptions, the civil officials and the other 
foreigners have been little, if any, better. Of them the 
Resident, Louis Tautain, remarked to the writer, that it 
was astonishing how soon after arriving in the islands nearly 
all of them degenerated. So far from overcoming the 
pagan barbarism, they were overcome by it. 

In some respects the French Civil Government has 
worked well for the good of the Marquesans. It has sup- 
pressed their intertribal wars, their barbaric practices, their 
pagan orgies, and their cannibalism ; it has compelled the 
natives at the seaports to wear clothing ; and it has 
afforded opportunities for trade and industrial enterprises. 
But neither this Government, nor the Roman Catholic 
missionaries, have changed the character of the natives, or 
uplifted them from their degradation. The natives still 
lead lives of utter indolence. Except when compelled by 
the Government to work in serving out sentences for 
crime, or when induced by exorbitant wages to labor for 
foreigners, they perform almost no work. The writer did 
not find a single acre of land in the group that was under 
voluntary cultivation by them for themselves. The result 
is that they are in deep poverty ; their houses are the same 
wretched hovels that were built by their ancestors ; and in 
the interior of the islands they wear almost no clothing. 
Many of them have been deprived by the priests of their 
lands, and, to a considerable degree, are dependent on 
the priests for subsistence. 

The Roman Catholics have not only failed to improve 



The Marquesas islands. 51 

the natives, but also have in some respects made them 
worse. By libidinous and licentious lives and by traffic in 
intoxicants, they have rendered them even more immoral 
and wretched than they previously were. The Govern- 
ment at first allowed them the free use of ardent spirits, 
and sold to Chinamen for forty thousand francs a license 
to sell to them opium. The natives seemed likely to 
become a nation of drunkards and opium -fiends. The 
Government, therefore, forbade the sales to them of liquors 
and opium, and checked the sales so suddenly that several 
natives died for lack of these intoxicants. The natives 
then resorted to the use of cocoanut toddy. This also the 
Government forbade, and, to make the prohibition ef- 
fective, it assigned to the gendarmes one- third of the fines 
imposed for use of the toddy. The result was that the 
gendarmes acquired great profits. Sometimes one of them 
would put on his epaulets, bind a sword on his side, as- 
cend a mountain, and suddenly descend into a valley and 
arrest a hundred natives at a toddy feast. These he would 
fine twenty dollars apiece, one-third of which would be 
his reward. For the payments of such fines one-third of 
the money acquired by the natives has been taken. 

Thus the work of the Roman Catholics for the Mar- 
quesans has been a failure, and in some respects worse 
than a failure. The Sister Marie, referred to, who at the 
time of the writer's visit was the Lady Superior of the Girls' 
Seminary at Taiohae, Nukuhiva, stated that during the 
thirty-two years of her labor in that institution she had 
seen no good results from her labors. The writer inquired 
of the Resident, Louis Tautain, what would be the result, 



52 THE ISLANDS OS THE PACIFIC. 

if the French police should be withdrawn from the group. 
He replied, that in three weeks the natives would become 
howling savages, and that they would return to cannibalism. 
He stated that one Marquesan was at that time serving 
out a sentence for cannibalism in New Caledonia, and 
that two other natives, then at large, were undoubtedly 
guilty of the same crime. He said that the population, 
which at the discovery of the group was probably fifty 
thousand, had diminished to four thousand five hundred 
and was diminishing at the rate of seven per cent per 
annum. Such is the result of the influence of sixty years 
of the Roman Catholic Religion ! 

I Q the year 1898 the Paris Missionary Society sent to 
this group Rev. Paul L. Vernier, a son of Rev. Frederick 
Vernier of Tahiti, and several Tahitian clergymen and 
teachers, and these missionaries were joyfully welcomed 
by the natives. They settled in the valleys formerly oc- 
cupied by the Hawaiian missionaries, at Atuona and 
Puamau on Hivaoa, at Hatatehau on Uapou, and at a 
valley onUahuka, thus occupying three islands. In 1906 
they had three churches, five out-stations and three hundred 
and fifty church members. They had not formed Prot- 
estant schools, for the previous schools of the Hawaiian 
missionaries had beens uppressed by the Administration, 
which, on its part, had started several good institutions in 
the group. Rev. Paul Vernier writes, " The missionary 
work is very difficult, and apparently without a great 
future. But God is here. The rapid decrease of the 
population is very alarming, and a very distressing 
subject." 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC. 53 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC. 

The rise of the islands of the Pacific through the ages 
of the past from the depths of the ocean, and their 
transformation from wastes of rock and volcanic fire into 
Edens of beauty, was hardly more wonderful and sublime 
than the elevation, proposed through Christianity, of the 
inhabitants of those islands from their primeval degrada- 
tion into the highest character of which human nature 
is capable, and finally to the glories of heaven. The en- 
terprise to accomplish so great and glorious a work was 
not devised through the promptings of mere human mo- 
tives, nor through confidence in mere human strength. 
Captain Cook, in commenting on the conduct of the 
Spaniards in erecting the cross on Tahiti, wrote that in 
his opinion nothing would ever be done to Christianize 
the Pacific Islanders ; "since there were no motives in 
public ambition nor in private avarice for such an under- 
taking. " He was correct in the view that neither avarice 
nor ambition would prompt to such an enterprise. But 
he knew little of the motives which Christianity supplies, 
and of the power it exerts to lift up the lowest races of 
men. 

The enterprise of foreign missions originated only in 
the highest developments of Christianity. When the 



54 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

long political conflicts in Great Britain between the 
Roman Catholics and the Protestants had ceased the 
churches in that country became free to rise into the 
highest philanthropic activities. The remarkable revivals 
of religion that then occurred resulted in the sending 
forth of missionaries to evangelize heathen nations, just 
as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in ancient Antioch 
resulted in the sending forth of the great missionary- 
apostle Paul, and his companion, Barnabas, to labor 
among the Gentiles. 

It is interesting to note that the particular occasion 
of the enterprise in England for foreign missions was the 
publication of the narratives of Cook's voyages in the 
Pacific. A young man by the name of William Carey, 
while preaching in the small town of Moulton, and at 
the same time working as a cobbler for the support of 
his family, read these narratives, and with a large map 
and a leather globe, which he himself had made, de- 
scribed Cook's voyages to his pupils, and at length was 
fired with a desire to carry the good news of God to the 
islanders — who had most hospitably entertained Cook 
and had been maddened by his injustice to kill him. So 
interested did Carey become in the Pacific Islanders that 
in a gathering of Baptist ministers he proposed a dis- 
cussion of the duty of the Church to evangelize heathen 
countries. To this proposition Dr. Ryland, an aged 
minister, replied, "Sit down, young man. When God 
proposes to convert the heathen he will do it without 
your help or mine." Dr. Ryland further remarked that 
"nothing could be done for such an object until another 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC. 55 

Pentecost, when an effusion of miraculous gifts, includ- 
ing the gift of tongues, would give effect to the commis- 
sion of Christ as at first. " But the young man was not 
silenced, and at length succeeded, by impassioned ap- 
peals to the public and by sermons preached before the 
Baptist Association, in persuading twelve ministers to 
unite with him in organizing at Kettering, on October 2, 
1792, the first Foreign Missionary Society of Great Brit- 
ain. Fifty years afterwards thousands of people gath- 
ered at Kettering to celebrate the jubilee of that organi- 
zation, and in 1892 a more notable gathering celebrated 
its centennial. 

It is an interesting fact that the first wish of Mr. 
Carey was to go as a missionary to the Pacific Ocean, to 
Tahiti, and that the first plan of this society was to send 
him thither. But about this time a Mr. John Thomas, 
a surgeon who had engaged in missionary work while in 
the employ of the East India Company, arrived in Lon- 
don seeking a missionary assistant, and so set forth the 
needs of India that the plan of the society was changed, 
and William Carey and John Thomas were sent to India. 

The sublime act of faith of these two men, in going 
as voluntary exiles from home to labor for a heathen 
race, kindled a fire of missionary enthusiasm throughout 
England. It was remarked that the Baptist Society had 
"a gold mine in India," but that it seemed almost as 
deep as the centre of the earth. Carey replied, ' ' I will 
go down into the mine ; but the Society at home must 
hold the ropes." Others besides the Baptists soon de« 
sired a # part in working this gold mine. 



56 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

On November 4, 1794, a company of ministers of 
various denominations united in London in issuing a 
circular calling for a convention of the delegates of the 
churches to meet in London on the 2 2d, 23d, and 24th 
days of the ensuing month, to consider the project of 
forming an undenominational missionary society. At the 
time appointed great multitudes met together, and two 
sermons were preached each day by eminent divines upon 
themes pertinent to foreign missions. In these meetings 
* ' Christians of all denominations for the first time met 
together in the same place, using the same hymns and 
prayers, and feeling themselves to be one. Two hundred 
ministers sat together in the galleries. One of the lead- 
ers of these meetings said, ' We are called together for the 
funeral of bigotry ; and I hope it will be buried so deep 
as never to rise again/ Whereat the whole vast body 
could scarce refrain from one general shout of joy/' The 
London Missionary Society was then formed, composed 
of Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Independents. 

It was declared in the constitution of this Society 
that "the design of the Society was not to send Presby- 
terianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form 
of church order and government (about which there may 
be difference of opinion among serious persons), but the 
glorious gospel of the blessed God to the heathen ; and 
that it shall be left (as it ought to be left) to the minds of 
the persons whom God may call into the fellowship of 
his Son from among them to assume for themselves such 
form of church government as to them shall appear most 
agreeable to the Word of God. " 



CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PACIFIC. 57 

It is interesting to note that the first foreign mission- 
ary society in America, the American Board, was in like 
manner undenominational at its origin. It may be said 
that, as at the origin of Christianity the infant Church set 
forth with the gift of tongues and a blessed fellowship 
and community of property, pointing forward to the fu- 
ture union of all mankind in fraternity and love, so the 
foreign mission work began with a fellowship of all Chris- 
tians, pointing forward to the future church-union in 
which alone foreign missions will finally be completely 
successful. 

The attention of the London Missionary Society was 
drawn at its very origin to the islands of the Pacific 
Ocean as a promising field for missions. Glowing ac- 
counts were given of the South Sea Islands as "very ter- 
restrial paradises, the people loving and lovable children 
of nature." Rev. Dr. Thomas Haweis, one of the found- 
ers and most liberal supporters of the Society, delivered 
an address upon the question " In what part of the world 
they should commence their work, " and drew a compar- 
ison between the climates, the governments, the lan- 
guages, and the religions of heathen countries ; and con- 
cluded that of all the dark places of the earth the South 
Sea Islands presented the fewest difficulties and the fair- 
est prospect of success. Dazzled by the pleasing picture 
he had drawn, the London Society resolved without delay 
to commence a mission to the South Sea Islands. 

For this purpose this Society purchased a ship at a 
cost of $24,375, and equipped her and furnished supplies 
for her long voyage at an additional expense of $34,000. 



58 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Capt. James Wilson, "a worthy Christian gentleman who 
had retired in affluence from the East India service," 
volunteered his services to command the vessel. Twenty 
chosen missionaries were then set apart for the mission 
to Tahiti. Six of them were married men, with whom 
were two children. Only four of them were ordained 
ministers. One was a physician and the others were 
artisans. "Thousands of people joined in the novel 
and most impressive services of their consecration to the 
missionary enterprise ; and no less than ten clergymen, 
Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Independent, Seceder, and 
Methodist, shared in the exercises. It was remarked 
that in no instance had such a spirit of prayer and sup- 
plication been poured out upon the churches, or such 
general approbation been discovered, as in the inception 
of this mission enterprise. " 

On the 23d of September, 1796, the Duff, flying an 
ensign with a figure, on a blue field, of a dove with an 
olive branch in her mouth, sailed from Portsmouth with 
these first missionaries for the islands of the Pacific 
Ocean. 




2 ffOAJattTC ST lUftOl 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 59 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 

The island of Tahiti, to which the first missionaries 
of the Pacific were sent, is one of a group called the 
Society Islands ; so named by Capt. Cook in honor of 
the Royal Society of London. This group is situated 
between latitudes 16 and 18 South, and longitudes 
148 and 1 55 West. It consists of thirteen islands and 
several small islets, and is divided by a channel sixty 
miles wide into two clusters ; the eastern, called the Wind- 
ward or Georgian Islands, comprising six islands, the 
western, called the Leeward or Society Islands, comprising 
seven islands. Their aggregate area is 650 square miles. 

With the exception of the coral islets in the extreme 
northwest these islands are of volcanic origin ; as is 
indicated by their lavas, basalt, and pumice-stone. In 
general appearance the volcanic islands resemble each 
other. A high mountain crowned with steep peaks 
occupies the interior ; on all sides steep ridges descend 
to the sea or to sloping plains ; and over all, mountains, 
valleys and plains, spreads a most luxuriant robe of 
tropical vegetation. Around most of these islands are 
barrier reefs, situated from a few yards to five miles from 
the shore. 

Tahiti lies in the southern part of the Windward or 
Georgian cluster, and is the largest island of the group, 



60 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

having an area of 4 1 2 square miles. It is composed of 
two distinct portions, united by an isthmus which is a 
mile wide and of only fifty feet elevation above the 
ocean. The southern portion is called Tairabu, and 
measures six by twelve miles. The northern portion is 
called Porionuu, and measures twenty by twenty-three 
miles. At the northeast extremity of Porionuu is the 
chief town of the group, Papeete, which is the capital of 
the French possessions in the Pacific and the emporium 
of the commerce of all the surrounding groups. It lies 
on the crescent-formed shore at the head of the Matavai 
Bay, embowered in beautiful tropical vegetation, with a 
background of enchanting woods and grand mountains. 
From a beach of white sand a continuous forest of wav- 
ing palms and vine-clad trees spreads to verdant ridges 
and deep ravines, and on to the mountains, Orohena, 
7,1 12 feet high, and Aorai, 6,579 feet high. The latter is 
jagged at its summit with rocky spires so as to resemble 
a royal crown, and for this reason called " La Diademe" 
A broad green road, called the "Broom Road," runs 
around this island close to the sea, through districts 
"which seem like one vast orchard of mango, bread- 
fruit, feis, orange-trees, sugar-cane, papayas and cocoa- 
nut-palms, together forming a succession of the very 
richest foliage it is possible to conceive. " The valleys 
of this island, especially Hautana, Matavai and Apai- 
ano, are very beautiful. 

In all the Society Islands it is difficult to travel out- 
side of the roads, so dense is the vegetation and so im- 
passable are the gorges and precipices. It is said also 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 6l 

that travelling on horseback is unsafe because "the 
land-crabs have literally riddled the by-paths." These 
crabs are sometimes found in the huts of the natives and 
under the mats of sleepers at night. 

To voyagers who for weeks had no surroundings but 
the blue ocean and the sky above the wonderful beauty 
of this island is quite enrapturing. One writer says, 
1 ' The scenery of that island will live for ever in my 
thoughts as some splendid dream of beauty, as early one 
morning I entered the port of Papeete. Before me were 
great mountains of every shade of blue, pink, gray, and 
purple, torn and broken into every conceivable fantastic 
shape, with deep, dark, mysterious gorges, showing 
almost black by contrast with the surrounding bright- 
ness, precipitous peaks and pinnacles rising one above 
the other until lost in the heavy masses of clouds they 
impaled, while below, stretching from the base of the 
mountains to the shore, was a forest of tropical trees 
with the huts and houses of the town peeping out be- 
tween. " 

Two miles west of Tahiti is Moorea, or Eimeo, a 
small but lofty and very picturesque island. Its moun- 
tain, Afareaitu, 3,986 feet in height, has formerly been 
rent asunder by violent volcanic convulsions, leaving 
stupendous upright splinters which have been jocosely 
called "Asses' ears." 

Mr. Ellis says of this island : " In the varied forms of 
its mountains, the verdure with which they are clothed, 
and the general romantic and beautiful character of 
its scener) Moorea surpasses every other island of the 



62 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Georgian or Society groups. A reef, like a ring, ex- 
tends around it two miles from the shore. On this 
reef are small verdant islets, appearing like emerald gems 
of the ocean, one opposite Afareaitu on the east side, and 
two south of Papetoai. " 

The author of "South Sea Bubbles" says : " As seen 
from Tahiti. Moorea is a wonderfully beautiful island, 
peaked and jagged in a way seldom seen. The harbor, 
Openohu, is a gorge, and one of the wildest gorges I 
have ever seen. Green precipices rise upwards of two 
thousand feet sheer from the water, fringed round their 
feet by cocoanut and orange-trees. Far up in the 
green cliffs may be seen the large leaves of the fei y or 
wild plantain. One of the highest and most acute peaks 
is perforated right through, just below the summit, the 
natives say by an ancient hero throwing his spear 
through the moutain peak. " 

Several of the Leeward Islands are described as no 
less picturesque and beautiful. Huahine and Raiatea 
are noble islands encircled by one coral reef. In this 
reef, at the northeast point of Raiatea, opposite the 
harbor, Utumaoro, are three green islets. Raiatea con- 
sists of two parts connected by an isthmus, and is com- 
pletely covered with verdure, from the sea to the sum- 
mits of the mountains ; the hibiscus and other shrubs 
overhanging the salt water of the harbor. 

Of Borabora the writer just quoted says: "This 
splendid island rises like a giant's castle out of the sea. 
At a distance it seems split into two parts, a tower and 
a steeple ; but when approached the two blend into one 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 63 

There is an extinct volcanic crater in its summit. The 
harbor is most magnificently beautiful, overhung by a 
heap of rock 3,000 feet high, noble basaltic cliffs stand- 
ing from a perfect cascade of verdure. Nowhere but 
in these islands have I ever seen positively richly green 
cliffs. I think Borabora is the most magnificently 
beautiful piece of rock-scenery I have ever seen." 

The inhabitants of the Society Islands are the Poly- 
nesian race, who, as has been mentioned, occupy the 
eastern portion of the Pacific. They are physically a 
very fine people. De Quatrefages, in a table giving the 
stature of different races of men, puts the natives of 
Samoa and Tonga as the largest people in the world. 
He gives the average height of this race as 5 feet, 9.92 
inches. The Society Islanders compare well in size with 
the Samoans and Tongans, while in general symmetry 
of form they are unsurpassed. 

A brief description of the Tahitians will answer for 
that of all the Polynesians of the Pacific. The Tahitians 
are a brown race, varying in color from a light olive to a 
swarthy brown according to the amount of their previous 
exposure to the sun. Their hair is usually raven black, 
and straight, wavy, or curly ; their eyes are black and 
expressive ; their lips of a little more than medium 
thickness ; their noses rather wide ; their foreheads 
fairly high and rather narrow. " Their women rank with 
the most beautiful in the Pacific. " 

In disposition the Tahitians are affable, light-hearted, 
and generous, but fickle, and under provocation deceit- 
ful, irritable, and brutal. 



64 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

At the time of the arrival of the missionaries the 
Tahitians were wearing their primitive costume, which 
consisted of an oblong piece of bark-cloth, the Hputa, 
with a hole in the centre for the head, a plain piece of 
cloth around the loins, and a malo, or T bandage. 

The women wore the parau, which was one piece of 
cloth, two and a half yards wide by eleven long, wrapped 
several times around the waist so as to hang down to the 
knees. They also wore a shawl, called the ahaifara, over 
the shoulders. They often wore brilliant flowers in their 
hair and fragrant garlands and necklaces. In the heat 
of the day they were uncovered to the waist, and the 
men wore only the malo. In times of rain they wore 
matting instead of cloth. At night their clothing served 
for bedding. The children went naked until six or seven 
years old. "The chiefs wore also short feather-cloaks 
and beautiful semicircular breastplates dexterously in- 
terwoven with the black plumage of the frigate-bird, 
with crimson feathers, and with sharks' teeth." 

Mr. George Foster tells of having once witnessed, in 
1777, what he called a most magnificent sight. Entering 
one of the harbors of Tahiti he saw "a fleet of 159 large 
war-canoes with 170 small canoes arrayed along the 
shore, manned with 1,500 warriors dressed in their 
robes, targets and towering helmets ; while on the beach 
were 4,000 warriors about to embark. The targets 
were of wicker-work covered with feathers and sharks' 
teeth; the helmets were five feet high, closely covered 
with glossy bluish green feathers of a sort of pigeon, with 
an elegant border of white plumes, and with a prodigious 




A TAHITIAN. 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 65 

number of the long tail-feathers of tropic-birds diverging 
from its edges in a radiant line resembling that glory of 
light with which painters commonly ornament the 
heads of angels or saints." These warriors were prepar- 
ing for an expedition against Moorea. The expedition 
failed and nearly all the fleet was captured. 

The Tahitians showed no little skill in manufactur- 
ing bark-cloth, mats, fishing-tackle, canoes, and house- 
hold furniture. They sometimes made bales of cloth, 
all in one piece, two hundred yards long and four yards 
wide, from strips of bark one and a half inches wide and 
four feet long. 

Their canoes were made of logs of trees, hollowed 
out by sharp stones and by fire, and were either double 
or single, with outriggers. The sterns were sometimes 
from 15 to 18 feet high, ornamented with figures of 
birds or gods. 

Their houses were little more than thatched roofs 
supported by posts and rafters. There were three rows 
of posts — one in the centre and two at the sides. Pan- 
danus leaves were used for thatch, and the ridge-pole was 
bound over with ferns or grass. The lower part of the 
house was open to the height of about four feet above 
the ground. The floors were covered with long dried 
grass or mats. The houses generally measured 11 by 
24 feet. One of the king's houses at Waitowate was 
397 feet long and 48 wide and 21 high. 

The staple food of the Tahitians was the breadfruit ; 
but besides this they subsisted on yams, taro, sweet- 
potatoes, plantains, and a few varieties of fruit. The 



66 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

quiet waters inclosed by their reefs afforded an abun- 
dant supply of fish. They cooked their food by burying 
it, well-wrapped with leaves, on heated stones in the 
ground. They obtained fire by rubbing together sticks 
of wood. 

Like the rest of the Polynesians, the Tahitians wor- 
shipped innumerable idols with horrid orgies and human 
sacrifices. Almost every man had his special god, but 
there were several principal gods : Taaroa (corresponding 
to Kaneloa of Hawaii), Tane (corresponding to Kane of 
Hawaii) and Oro, the national god of Tahiti (correspond- 
ing to Lono of Hawaii). The idols measured from a 
few inches to six feet long, and were ornamented with 
sennit and red feathers. It was supposed that the gods 
entered them at certain seasons, and in consequence of 
certain ceremonies. 

The Tahitians also worshipped the spirits of their 
deceased ancestors, called Oromatuas (in Hawaii, Auma- 
kuas). These they invoked in sickness, and for ven- 
geance against their enemies ; in which latter case they 
sought to obtain something from the victim they would 
destroy — parings of the nails, locks of hair, or saliva — by 
which to set the demon on the track of the victim ; a 
method followed in Hawaii, the New Hebrides, and 
other Polynesian Islands. 

The places of Tahitian worship were piles of stones, 
called morai, built in pyramidal form, with flights of steps 
at the sides ; on these the idols were erected and the of- 
ferings laid. A morai at Atahuru measured 270 feet by 
ninety-four wide and fifty high. Other sacred places were 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 67 

the platforms on which, under sheds, they exposed the 
bodies of the dead ; for they did not bury their dead, 
but partially embalmed them, and placed them on these 
platforms with provisions. 

By the Tahitian religion the women were forbidden 
to eat with the men. The husband and the wife made 
separate fires, kept their food separate, and ate apart, the 
wife generally in another hut. The women were also 
tabooed from eating pork, fowls, bananas, and several 
kinds of fish. 

Immorality, polygamy and infanticide prevailed in 
Tahiti to an incredible extent. It was estimated by the 
first missionaries that two-thirds of the children were 
put to death at birth. This was generally done by 
strangling, or by piercing with a bamboo. Rev. John 
Williams once asked three women, whom he casually 
met, whether they had killed any of their children. One 
replied that she had killed nine, another seven, and the 
other three. After the abolition of idolatry, a chief con- 
fessed in a large assembly that he had been the father of 
nineteen children, and that he had murdered them all ; 
and he wept at remembrance of their deaths. A chief- 
tainess was bitterly troubled in the hour of death by remem- 
brance of having put to death her sixteen children. 

Wars were almost incessant in Tahiti, and were most 
cruel and destructive. During the first fifteen years of 
the mission there were ten wars. Just before the arrival 
of the missionaries there was an inter-tribal war which 
resulted in the conquest of the whole island by Pomare 
and his son Otu. 



68 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

The immorality of the Tahitians reached its climax in 
a strange organization of men and women, called Areoi, 
who lived together indiscriminately without marriage, 
spent their time in licentious dancing and feasting from 
village to village, and killed all their children. They 
kept up their organization only by initiating new mem- 
bers. 

The vices of the Tahitians were vastly increased by 
the coming of the white men, who gave free rein to their 
avarice and sensuality. The women thronged every ship 
to obtain trinkets and baubles, and especially bits of iron 
hoop and nails, which were considered more precious 
than gold. 

Captain Cook said of the immorality of the Tahiti- 
ans, for which his crew were partly responsible, ' ' There 
is a scale of dissolute sensuality which these people have 
ascended, wholly unknown to every other nation, and 
which no imagination could possibly conceive." Rev. 
William Ellis remarked, " Awfully dark, indeed, was 
their moral character, and notwithstanding the apparent 
mildness of their disposition, and the cheerful vivacity of 
their conversation, no portion of the human race was 
ever perhaps sunk lower in brutal licentiousness and 
moral degradation than this isolated people." 

Such were the islands and such the people to whom 
the missionaries on the Duff were voyaging. These 
missionaries were obliged by violent gales in the South 
Atlantic to change their course and to round the Cape of 
Good Hope instead of Cape Horn, and did not arrive at 
Tahiti till March 4th, 1797, after a voyage of six months 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 69 

and nineteen days. Because of their course around the 
Cape of Good Hope their reckoning of the days of the 
week differed by one day from that of the American 
missionaries of Hawaii, their Sunday coming on the 
Saturday of the American missionaries. 

Hardly had their little vessel come to anchor off the 
shores of Tahiti when seventy-four canoes came off to 
her, and soon a hundred savages were capering with de- 
light upon her decks. It was the Sabbath-day; and 
therefore the missionaries, instead of bartering with the 
natives, held a service of song and prayer, while the na- 
tives looked on in silent wonder. 

On the next day several of the missionaries went in 
a boat to examine the island. About five hundred natives 
gathered on the shore to receive them, and, wading into 
the sea, dragged the boat up on the beach, and carried 
them ashore on their backs. The king, Otu, and his 
queen, Tetua, came to welcome them, borne on the 
shoulders of natives ; for, according to their customs, 
whatever the king set foot upon became his, whether it 
was land or the deck of a vessel. There were two white 
men residing on the island, dressed, or rather undressed, 
like the natives. By the aid of one of these, a Swede, 
who had escaped from shipwreck to the island, Captain 
Wilson informed the king, Otu, of the purposes of the 
missionaries. The king expressed himself as pleased, 
and gave them a building one hundred and eight feet long 
by forty-eight wide, and assigned them a large district, 
called Matavai, in which to reside without dispossessing 
the natives. As soon as the lower, unthatched, part of 



yo THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

the house was enclosed, the missionaries disembarked, 
and entered the house with prayer and thanksgiving to 
God. The Duff soon afterwards sailed away, taking ten 
missionaries to the Tonga Islands. After her return she 
took one missionary to the Marquesas Islands, and one, 
by his own request, to England. 

The missionaries located on Tahiti were Revs. James 
Cover and wife, John Eyrie and wife, John Jefferson, 
Thomas Lewis, and Messrs. Henry Bicknell, wheelwright, 
Benjamin Broomhall, harness-maker, John Cock, car- 
penter, Samuel Clode, gardener, John Gilham, surveyor, 
William Henry, carpenter, and wife, Peter Hodges, bra- 
zier, and wife, Rowland Haffell, weaver, and wife, Ed- 
ward Main, tailor, Henry Nott, bricklayer, Francis 
Oakes, shoemaker, James Puckey, carpenter, William 
Puckey, carpenter, and William Smith, linen-draper. 
There were also two children — James Cover, twelve years, 
and Thomas Haffell, two years old. 

The report made by Captain Wilson about his voy- 
age, after his return to England, excited so much enthu- 
siasm that in the latter part of the following year the 
Duff was again sent forth with twenty-nine more mis- 
sionaries for the Pacific. But the Duff was captured by 
a French privateer, and all the missionaries on board of 
her, except one who died, after many distressing adven- 
tures found their way back to England. 

However romantic it may have seemed to engage in 
this benevolent enterprise in the beautiful islands of the 
Pacific it must have soon seemed hardly endurable, under 
the privations and perils the missionaries experienced. 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 



71 



At that time the wars of Great Britain with Napoleon 
Bonaparte made it difficult for the London Society to 
communicate with them ; and for five years no supplies 
nor letters from England came to them. During the 
seven following years letters and supplies came only twice, 
and once the supplies, when they arrived, had been spoiled 
by salt water. During these years they suffered from 
want of the very necessaries of life. "Their shoes wore 
out, their clothes became threadbare, tea and sugar 
were only remembered as luxuries of the past." Their 
situation was made worse by the neglect of the king, who 
was disappointed in his hope of getting presents from 
them, and ceased to provide them with food. He re- 
marked that they gave him plenty of the Word of God, 
but very few axes, knives, or scissors. Sometimes 
they could obtain food only by sending a boy to the 
mountains for wild fruit or to the breadfruit trees of a 
friendly chief. The Swede, Peter Hagerstine, whom they 
had employed as an interpreter in their conference with 
the king and in their preaching, sought to influence the 
king against them. Once when passing with the king 
near their house, while they were kneeling in prayer, he 
suggested that it would be easy at such a time to destroy 
them all and appropriate their property. Their situation 
also, without weapons of defence and with tender wives 
and children, amongst the warring natives, was about as 
perilous as that of a child in a menagerie of wild 
animals. 

Soon after their arrival the chiefs of the opposite 
side of the island revolted against the king ; the war was 



72 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

carried into the district of Matavai, and the half-clad 
savages, appearing in their disfigurement of paint and with 
their fierce war cries more like devils than men, made 
their beautiful surroundings resemble the infernal regions. 
Once four of the missionaries were seized and stripped 
by the natives, and dragged into the river, and they bare- 
ly escaped to the opposite banks. 

Alarmed by these perils, and discouraged also because 
there were no signs of success in their work, all but two 
of the missionaries now proposed to leave the islands. 
The king besought them to remain, and seven of them 
did so ; while the rest went by way of Huahine to New 
South Wales. 

Only five missionaries now remained. But they per- 
severed in their unpromising work, and soon succeeded 
with the aid of a few chiefs in building the first chapel 
erected for Christian worship in the Pacific. It was dedi- 
cated on March 5th, 1800; three years after their arrival. 
King Pomare, desiring to show favor on this occasion, 
sent a fish as an offering to Jesus Christ, requesting that 
it should be hung up in the chapel. 

In June, 1801, a reinforcement of eight more mission- 
aries arrived in the Royal Admiral, Capt. Wilson, making 
the whole number now twelve. Mr. Nott had mastered 
the language sufficiently to be able to preach, and now 
with Mr. Elder made the first tour of the island, preach- 
ing in thirty villages. Some of the natives seemed quite 
affected by the preaching, especially the accompanying 
servants, who by attending the meetings at every village 
gained considerable knowledge of gospel truth. 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 73 

But unhappily, when now a faint gleam of encourage- 
ment was appearing, a fierce civil war again broke out. 
King Pomare had forcibly removed the national idol called 
Oro, a mere shapeless log six feet long, from the district 
Atehuru, where it had always been kept ; and the natives 
of this district, with other tribes, went to war to recover 
it. Providentially, there were twenty-three English sea- 
men on the island, most of whom had recently escaped 
from shipwreck ; they came together to the house of the 
missionaries to make common defense against the rebels. 
With their aid the missionaries pulled down their chapel, 
to prevent its being set on fire or used as a place of refuge 
for the enemy, cut down their breadfruit trees, and made 
a stockade around their house. Four brass cannon, ob- 
tained from a wrecked ship, were placed in the upper 
rooms of the house ; and by turns the seamen and the 
missionaries stood guard. The rebels at length, seeing 
the preparation for defense, desisted from the war. 

In 1803 King Pomare died; and his son, Otu, be- 
came king, and assumed the title, Pomare II. The first 
Pomare had been a most vicious and inhuman savage. 
It was estimated by the missionaries that during his 
reign of thirty years he had sacrificed two thousand human 
victims as offerings to his idols. Pomare II. at first ap- 
peared to be little better, and committed so many acts of 
violence that in 1805, after eight years of apparently 
fruitless labor, six missionaries removed from Tahiti to 
Huahine. 

On the 6th of November, 1808, another rebellion 
broke out ; and finally Pomare was defeated, the house 



74 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

of the missionaries destroyed, and their printing types 
were melted for bullets. By Pomare's advice the mission- 
aries now fled to the other islands ; and on the 26th of Oc- 
tober, 1809, they all, except Mr. Nott and Mr. Hay ward, 
went to Port Jackson, New South Wales. The mission 
now seemed to be broken up, only two missionaries re- 
maining as "the forlorn hope." These felt more than 
ever before that there was no success for them except 
through divine aid. 

But light was about to dawn. The reading of trans- 
lations of the New Testament was having an effect on 
the people. As a missionary once read the words, " God 
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life, " a native exclaimed, ' f Is that true ? " 
When assured that it was true he replied, " Your God 
is unlike our gods. Your God has love ; our gods 
have only cruelty ; and we make offerings to them only 
to propitiate them. But," he continued, "your God 
has love for you, not for us." The missionary assured 
him that the proffers of the gospel were for him and all 
his people. He was greatly affected, and remained long 
in deep meditation. 

King Pomare also now became interested, and attend- 
ed the preaching more regularly, and sent a message to 
the missionaries at Port Jackson expressing deep sorrow 
at their absence and entreating them to return. In the 
latter part of the year, 181 1, five of them, Messrs. Bick- 
nell, Davies, Henry, Scott and Wilson, returned, and re- 
sided with Messrs. Nott and Hayward at Moorea, in the 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 75 

district of Papetoai, whither King Pomare had fled from 
Tahiti. 

About this time King Pomare made a striking test of 
the power of his false gods. When a turtle, which was 
considered a sacred animal, was brought to him for food, 
instead of making the customary offering of a part of it to 
the idol in the temple before eating it, he gave orders to 
bake it at once, and when it was prepared proceeded to 
eat it. The natives watched him with horror, expecting 
to see him writhe in convulsions, and when they saw that 
no harm came to him were much shaken in their belief re- 
specting idolatry. 

King Pomare now urged Tapoa, king of Raiatea, and 
several chiefs of that island, who were visiting Tahiti, to 
unite with him in renouncing idolatry. One of these 
chiefs, a brother of Tapoa, went a step further than Po- 
mare, and burnt his idol, and ate breadfruit baked in its 
ashes. 

Pomare now returned by invitation to resume the 
government of Tahiti, and there labored to dissuade the 
people from worshipping idols, and to enlighten them 
about the true religion. When the missionaries heard 
what he was doing they sent two of their number, 
Messrs. Scott and Hayward, to aid him. In the morn- 
ing after their arrival Mr. Scott heard a native among the 
bushes near their lodging engaged in prayer. It was 
the first native voice in praise and prayer that he had 
ever heard, and he listened almost entranced and with 
tears of joy. The name of the native was Oito. He was 
awakened to interest about the Christian religion by re- 



j6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

marks made by the king, and had applied for counsel to 
a man by the name of Tuahine, who had been a servant 
of the missionaries, and with him and a number of others 
had renounced idolatry and commenced the practice of 
secret prayer. 

The missionaries now took Tuahine and Oito to 
Moorea, and with them made a tour of that island. On 
the 25th of July, 18 13, they dedicated a new chapel, 
which they had built at the request of Pomare. During 
the ceremony of dedication they gave notice that on the 
following day a meeting would be held for those who 
would be willing to renounce idolatry and worship the 
true God. The result was that thirty-one natives made 
Christian confession ; and in a few days eleven more 
forsook their idols and covenanted to worship Jehovah. 
A priest now, by the name of Patii, announced that on 
the following day he would burn his idols. At the time 
appointed a great number of the natives came together 
to witness the performance, and were deeply impressed, 
as he brought out his images one by one, tore off their 
coverings of cinet and red feathers, and burned them, 
calling upon the people to witness their inability to help 
themselves. 

These first successes of the missionaries occurred after 
a long "night of sixteen years of toil." But the tri- 
umphs that followed throughout all the Pacific were 
worth all the toil ahd suffering they cost. 

The devil of idolatry, however, did not go out of the 
Tahitians without some tearing. In almost every in- 
stance of the overthrow of idolatry in the Pacific the 




TAHITIAN BELLES. 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 77 

overthrow has been opposed by war. In this case the 
heathen soon began to persecute the Christians. "It 
had been customary for the priests to name certain 
families from whom to select victims for sacrifice. 
These selections were now made from the number of the 
Christians. Many of the Christians fled to other islands, 
and many who did not flee were sacrificed. At length 
a midnight attack was planned for surprising and massa- 
cring all the Christians. But a few hours before the 
time appointed for the attack a secret hint was given to 
the Christians, and they launched their canoes and fled 
to Moorea." 

Soon afterwards, by invitation of the idolaters, the 
Christians, eight hundred in number, returned to Tahiti. 
On the following Sabbath, November 12, 18 15, as they 
were engaged together in prayer at Narri near Bunauia, 
the idolaters attacked them in great force. The Chris- 
tians had barely time to seize their arms and form three 
columns, two near the beach and one in the rear to- 
wards the mountains. In the latter column Mahine, the 
king of Huahine, assisted, wearing a helmet covered 
with plates of spotted cowrie, and ornamented with 
plumes of tropic birds. His sister fought beside him, 
clothed in strongly twisted native flax. The idolaters 
drove in the first ranks, and pressed on towards Mahine 
and his sister, when one of Mahine's men, Raveae, with 
a spear killed Upufara, the leader of the heathen. On 
learning of the death of their leader the pagan army fled. 
Pomare now forbade pursuit and murder, and sent a 
select band to Tautina to destroy the temple, altars, 



78 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

idols, and every appendage of idolatry they could find. 
The idol, Oro, was now made a post for the king's kitch- 
en, and finally cut up for fire-wood. Nearly all the 
other idols on the island and also the temples and altars 
were destroyed. Pomare sent twelve of the idols to the 
missionaries in Moorea, with the request that they should 
be sent to the Missionary Society in London. 

The clemency Pomare now displayed, in pardoning 
his defeated enemies, who according to ancient customs 
would have been put to death, greatly affected the hea- 
then ; and they almost universally abandoned idolatry 
and united with the Christians in worshipping the true 
God. 

The missionaries at Moorea were overjoyed at hear- 
ing of these events, and sent one of their number to Ta- 
hiti ; and he was occupied for many days from morning 
till night in religious conversation with the people. 
Schools were now established everywhere, the worship of 
idols renounced, infanticide and other abominations 
of idolatry discontinued, and peace and prosperity 
reigned. 

While these encouraging events were occurring, the 
directors of the London Missionary Society were discuss- 
ing whether they should not recall these missionaries and 
give up their mission in Tahiti, because of its apparent 
failure. But Rev. Thomas Haweis, one of the founders 
of the society, earnestly protested against this proposi- 
tion, and made a new donation of $1,000 for this mis- 
sion. Rev. Matthew Wilkes remarked that he would 
sell the clothes from his back rather than abandon the 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 79 

mission, and proposed that a special season of prayer 
should be observed in behalf of the Society-Islanders. 
While these discussions were going on a vessel was on 
her way from Tahiti bearing the news of the complete 
downfall of idolatry in Tahiti and Moorea, and convey- 
ing the rejected idols of the people. 

The missionaries were unable to fully meet the de- 
mand that now arose for books and translations of the 
Bible. Especially was this the case when, in 1817, Rev. 
William Ellis arrived with a printing-press. The wonder 
and delight of the natives at the marvellous machine 
knew no bounds. They gathered from the surrounding 
districts and from the other islands ; they filled the 
houses of the district to overflowing, and temporary 
sheds were erected for their accommodation ; and they 
crowded together around the building in which the press 
was operated, climbing on each others' shoulders and 
darkening the windows, so eager was their curiosity to 
see the wonderful machine and so desirous were they to 
procure books. Some of them waited five or six weeks 
before returning home rather than return without 
books. 

The natives now also aided the missionaries with 
great enthusiasm in building school-houses and churches. 
King Pomare provided the materials, and erected a house 
of worship at Papaoa, on Tahiti, which measured 712 
feet in length by 54 in breadth. This building contained 
three pulpits, 260 feet apart. A watercourse five or six 
feet wide crossed it in an oblique direction. It was a 
natural stream from the mountains to the sea, and 



80 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

could not be diverted. For a church bell a thick 
iron hoop was used, which was struck by an iron bolt. 
In the same year, on the 6th of June, the first bap- 
tism at the Society Islands was performed, when in the 
presence of 4,000 people the king, the first subject of 
this sacrament, was baptized, and after him many other 
natives. 

With new views of duty, derived from Christian expe- 
rience, Pomare now began to feel the need of a better 
system of governing his islands, and sought the aid of 
the missionaries in making a written code of laws. 
When this code was prepared he called a great assembly 
of 7,000 of the natives and read it to them ; and they 
unanimously voted to accept it. Copies of it were sent 
to all the chiefs and it was afterwards rigorously enforced ; 
so rigorously that the Queen-Dowager was afterwards 
arrested for cutting down a tree of a poor man, and 
made to pay restitution, which, however, the man 
gallantly refused to receive. The result of the estab- 
lishment of the code was a greater peace and order and 
prosperity of the islands. 

In the year 1821 King Pomare died in joyful Chris- 
tian hope. He was succeeded by his son, who was only 
four years old ; but the boy lived only a little over a 
year, and was succeeded by his sister, who reigned with 
the title, "Queen Pomare." 

The good work that had been accomplished in 
Tahiti soon extended to the Leeward Islands ; for mis- 
sionaries had occasionally labored in these islands from 
the beginning of their work in Tahiti. Those of them 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 8 1 

who fled from Tahiti in 1808 spent several months on 
Huahine preaching the gospel. In 18 14 Mr. Nott and 
Mr. Hayward visited Huahine and Raiatea, and made 
the circuit of these islands preaching to the people. 
The news of the downfall of the great national idol, 
Oro, was carried to these islands, and shook the faith 
of the natives in their idols. After the victory over the 
heathen in Tahiti King Mahine sent Vahaivi, one of 
his chiefs, to destroy the idols on his island of Huahine. 
The other chiefs on that island at first opposed this, but 
finally submitted. King Tapoa of Raiatea also, and 
some of his chiefs, visited Tahiti, and listened to the 
instructions of the missionaries, and on returning to their 
islands publicly renounced idolatry, and persuaded many 
of their people to follow their example. In the year 
1818 four missionaries removed from Moorea to Raiatea 
and Borabora, and there found that many of the in- 
habitants had renounced idolatry. But the idolatrous 
chiefs in Raiatea, like those of Tahiti, resorted to arms 
to maintain their paganism, and vowing vengeance on 
the Christians for the destruction of the national idol, 
Oro, erected a house of cocoanut and breadfruit trunks 
in which to burn the Christians alive, and attacked the 
Christians while they were engaged in prayer. A des- 
perate conflict followed; in which the heathen were de- 
feated. 

The Christians followed up their victory with kind- 
ness, instead of the customary barbarities, and pro- 
claiming forgiveness for their prisoners conducted them 
to a sumptuous feast. The heathen were so amazed 



82 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

at this clemency that they at once destroyed their idols 
and temples. 

In 1820 a house of worship was erected, on Hua- 
hine, which was one hundred feet long and sixty wide, 
and was plastered within and without with lime made 
of coral from the reefs. Rustic chandeliers were made 
for it of light wood and cocoanut shells, and sliding 
shutters for its windows. 

From this time for many years the Mission greatly 
prospered. In the year 1836 there were in Tahiti 2,000 
natives in church fellowship, and in the other islands 
969. To voyagers who had witnessed the former de- 
graded condition of the natives the transformation they 
had undergone was very surprising. Capt. Harvey, of 
a whale-ship, made the following statement in 1839 re- 
specting Tahiti : "This is the most civilized place I 
have been at in the South Seas. It is governed by a 
dignified young lady twenty-five years of age. They have 
a good code of laws, and no liquors are allowed to be 
landed on the island. It is one of the most gratifying 
sights the eye can witness, to see on Sunday in their 
church, which holds about five thousand, the Queen 
near the pulpit, with all her subjects around her, decently 
apparelled and seemingly in pure devotion. " 

In all these islands idolatry was soon entirely abol- 
ished, codes of law were established, and the natives 
adopted the outward forms of Christian civilization. 

And now to these islands, just rising out of the 
night of heathenism and receiving a little of the light of 
heaven, came in 1836 two cowled emissaries of the Ro- 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS, 83 

man Catholic church. These priests soon contrived, as 
has been described, to embroil the Windward Islands 
with France, and to bring them under usurpation by 
that country. The result was, that here one of the 
most promising missions in the world was wrecked, and 
in its place a sad reign of violence, intemperance and 
lust was instituted. The French abolished the laws 
against the importation and sale of ardent spirits to the 
natives, placed the mission schools under the supervision 
of their own officials, required that no language but 
French should be used in the schools, and forbade con- 
tributions to any foreign missionary society. 

Under these circumstances the London Missionary 
Society could only withdraw from its enterprise in 
these islands. As the best alternative, it transferred its 
missions in these islands to the Evangelical Society of 
France. French priests have made great efforts to win 
over the natives to the Roman-catholic religion ; but the 
natives have been so well instructed by the English mis- 
sionaries, and are so fortified by the translations of the 
Bible they possess and use, that they have continued 
firmly Protestant. 

There are now in Tahiti sixteen churches with 1,663 
members, in Moorea four churches with ^60 members, 
and in the Leeward Islands about 1,500 church-members. 
But in all the Society Islands there has been a sad phys- 
ical deterioration and mortality of the natives through 
the intemperance and vice forced upon them by the 
French. It is one of the miracles of missions that 
there are still any churches at all in these islands, and 



84 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

one of the saddest facts of history that the rapacity of 
an enlightened country has forced back into darkness 
this poor people who were just groping their way out of 
pagan night. The spirit of remorseless greed, thus 
shown, differs from the self-sacrificing benevolence that 
animated the missionaries as darkness from light. 

The history of the Society Islands, subsequent to the 
events recorded above, has been of a sad social and 
religious relapse under the Roman Catholic regime, and 
finally of a happy revival through the labors of the Evan- 
gelical French missionaries. At first the Paris Evan- 
gelical Missionary Society was unable to prosecute with 
vigor the work in this group committed to it by the 
London Missionary Society. The Roman Catholic priests 
and their lay-brothers and nuns could not exert any in- 
fluence for good, since the natives believed that they had 
been the chief agency for the subjugation of their group 
to France. The French Government seemed to seek 
rather to make of the group an enjoyable resort, than to 
uplift the natives. The Government enacted good laws, 
and ably executed them, constructed admirable roads and 
bridges and wharves, but did little else for developing the 
resources of the islands. A French Admiral once pro- 
tested against the establishment of factories, because their 
unsightly walls would mar the scenic beauty and the 
screams of their steam whistles would break the delightful 
stillness of the islands. Most of the government officials, 
the priests, and other foreigners exerted on the native- 
deplorable influences by their dissolute lives. It was gen- 
erally remarked that France regarded the group as a 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 85 

convenient place to which to send her dissipated young 
men. With the influences of these residents and visitors 
there was combined that of the warships, which were con- 
tinually noored at Papeete, and which conducted every 
two weeks gala-days of dissipation on shore. The French 
Courts ruled that, inasmuch as the Tahitians did not 
rebel, as the Marquesans did against France, after their 
submission to that country, they were entitled, equally 
with Frenchmen, to the privilege (?) of using intoxicating 
liquors. The result was that the natives almost univer- 
sally became intemperate, were greatly demoralized, and 
rapidly diminished in number. 

Amidst these discouraging circumstances, the evan- 
gelical missionaries persevered, and in process of time 
they were better sustained by the Paris Evangelical 
Missionary Society, for this society gained strength by the 
increasing growth of the Evangelical Church of France. 
With the aid of this society the missionaries succeeded in 
influencing the government to forbid the prolonged moor- 
ing of war-ships at Papeete and the celebration of gala-days 
on shore, to decree that French officials going for service 
to the group should take with them their wives, and to 
repress the drunkenness of the natives and the orange-rum 
feasts they were accustomed to conduct in the mountains. 
The government was also induced to subsidize steamers 
for promoting the commerce of the islands with San Fran- 
cisco, New Zealand and Australia. The French Courts 
ruled that, inasmuch as Pomare ceded to France only 
her Sovereignty, the lands belonged to the natives, and the 
natives, feeling secure in the possession of them, labored 



86 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

more industriously to cultivate them and to improve their 
homes. In the year 1896 and several subsequent years, 
the vanilla pods, produced by the natives, brought fabu- 
lous prices, and the natives realized from the production 
of them in a small district sixty thousand dollars. What 
to do with this suddenly acquired wealth they at first 
hardly knew. Many of them invested their portions of it 
in little cottages built of foreign lumber, others in horses, 
carriages, sewing machines, melodeons, or buried their 
portions of it in the ground under their huts, or committed 
their portions to the care of merchants. Realizing thus 
that they could live in the style of the white people, they 
became more earnest to so do, and thus by the acquisi- 
tion of new wants became more industrious. 

As the natives are now engaging to a greater extent in 
useful employments, and receiving encouragement from 
the government, they are leading more quiet and orderly 
lives ; their women, who formerly resorted to Papeete 
rather from poverty than from evil impulses, now remain 
at home ; and both men and women better attend and 
better sustain their churches. Under the labors of the 
French missionaries the membership of their churches 
has increased from 3,000 to 5,000. From these churches 
ordained native ministers have gone forth as foreign mis- 
sionaries, of whom three have settled in the Marquesas 
Islands, two in the Tuamotu Islands, one in the Gambier 
Islands, and one in New Guinea. During the past year 
the birth-rate in the group slightly exceeded the death- 
rate. Said a prominent Roman Catholic priest recently 
to one of the missionaries : " It devolves on you and your 



THE SOCIETY ISLANDS. 87 

fellow-laborers to Christianize the Tahitians ; we cannot 
do it." 

Besides laboring for the natives in their churches and 
in their schools and in an admirable collegiate institute 
at Papeete, the French evangelical missionaries are sus- 
taining successfully a church for the foreign residents at 
Tahiti, and thus they are developing in both the native 
and foreign populations a stable and prosperous Christian 
civilization. 

In 1902 the population of Tahiti was 9,613, of Moorea 
1,530, of the Leeward Group, 4,531, the total of both the 
Leeward and Windward Group 15,674. The exports, 
consisting chiefly of copra, vanilla, mother-of-pearl shells, 
oranges, pineapples and other fruits, are annually of the 
value of #360,000. Sugar is produced, but only in suf- 
ficient quantities for use in this French colony, since here 
it has the advantage of a high tariff. The exports can 
be greatly increased, for the islands are Eldorados of 
resources for wealth, as well as Paradises of beauty. 



88 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 

Where the first missionaries landed in Tahiti great 
cocoanut-trees bent over the bay and often dropped into 
the waves ripened nuts, which, borne by ocean currents 
to distant reefs, sometimes germinated and grew, and 
aided in forming little Edens where previously had been 
only the dreary expanse of ocean and shifting coral 
sands. Thus from the same place the truths proclaimed 
by the missionaries were conveyed by various agencies to 
distant islands, and caused the blessings of Christianity 
where had been only the evil and gloom of paganism. 
Before the missionaries had gone to labor beyond the 
Society Islands natives of the Austral group visited 
them and listened with intense curiosity to their in- 
struction, and on returning home persuaded their coun- 
trymen to renounce idolatry and begin Christian wor- 
ship. 

The Austral Islands are situated 350 miles south of 
Tahiti, between 21 and 2 2° south latitude and 145 
and 1 50 west longitude. They are of volcanic forma- 
tion, and covered, like Tahiti, with a luxuriant tropical 
vegetation. The island Rurutu, the most interesting of 
this group, is five miles long and two wide, and rises to 
1,200 feet elevation above the ocean. 

In the year 1820 a fearful epidemic prevailed on 



THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 89 

Rurutu, and two chiefs, believing that it was caused by 
the anger of their gods, fled to the adjacent island, Tu- 
buai, and there remained several months. In returning 
home they were driven by a storm more than 300 miles ; 
one of their canoes was lost, and the other, with a chief 
by the name of Auura, safely reached Maurau, the most 
westerly of the Society Islands. This chief and his com- 
panions were surprised to find that here the pagan tem- 
ples had been thrown down and the idols destroyed, and 
that the natives were engaged in a new form of worship. 
Learning that white men, who had come in ships, had 
introduced the new religion and were residing on the 
other Society Islands, they embarked in their canoe, and 
on March 5, 1821, arrived at Borabora, where they found 
the missionaries, and continued four months under their 
instruction. Auura was exceedingly diligent in the 
mission-school, and soon was able to read the Gospel of 
Matthew and to repeat the greater part of the catechism. 
He now publicly renounced idolatry and accepted the 
true religion, and as he began to think of returning to 
his islands entreated that teachers should be sent with 
him for his countrymen. Two native deacons, Maha- 
mene and Puna, at once volunteered to go with him. 
The Boraborans enthusiastically supplied them with the 
necessary outfit and school-books and copies of the gos- 
pel in Tahitian. They took passage for the Austral 
Islands on July 5, 182 1, taking with them a boat by 
which to send back a report of their work. On the 9th 
of the ensuing August, after a little more than a month, 
the boat returned, bringing fourteen of the idols of Ru- 



90 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

rutu, to indicate that idolatry had been overthrown in 
that island. 

A meeting of the Borabora Church was at once 
called by the missionaries, and a great multitude of the 
people came together to hear the reports from Rurutu 
and to see the idols. The boatmen related that as soon 
as the chief, Auura, reached Rurutu, the people gathered 
in great numbers to welcome him, and that he immedi- 
ately informed them of the abolition of idolatry in the 
Society Islands and of his conversion to Christianity, 
and urged them to destroy their idols. At the same 
time one of the teachers, Puna, proposed that, for a test 
of the power of their idols, they should prepare a feast 
in a place considered sacred, and of articles of food which 
their religion forbade to women. They agreed, and pre- 
pared the feast, and Auura, with the Tahitian teachers 
and their wives, partook of it, while the natives looked 
on expecting to see them fall in the agonies of death. 
When on the next day they perceived that they contin- 
ued unharmed they exclaimed that their priests had 
deceived them, and hastened to destroy their temples. 
The teachers from Borabora were now welcomed to give 
instruction, and a chapel was built which measured 80 
feet long and 36 wide. In this chapel "the railing 
around the table in front of the pulpit and by the sides 
of the stairs was composed of the handles of spears ; for 
they had resolved to learn war no more, but to submit 
to the Prince of Peace. " 

Among the idols exhibited in the meeting was one 
called "Taaroa" (Kaneloa of Hawaii), the ancestral 



THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 91 

god of Rurutu. It was a rude figure made of sennit in 
the shape of a man, with an opening down the front, 
through which it was filled with twenty-four small idols, 
the family gods of the chiefs. 

In the meeting in which this report was given the 
Borabora people were roused to great enthusiasm to send 
the gospel to other islands, and the missionaries re- 
marked that they "felt some foretaste of the joy the 
angels will feel when it is announced that the kingdoms 
of our world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and 
his Christ." 

As soon as the inhabitants of the neighboring island, 
Tubuai, heard that idolatry had been abolished on Ru- 
rutu they sent a deputation to Tahiti to obtain teachers 
for themselves also. This deputation arrived at Tahiti 
at a time when all that island was preparing for war. 
They now requested the contending parties to postpone 
hostilities till their application for teachers could be con- 
sidered. The hostile chiefs assented and came together, 
and in conferring about this mission enterprise became 
reconciled to each other; the war was terminated and 
messengers of the religion of peace sent to Tubuai. 

From other islands of this group natives now went in 
canoes, some of them a distance of 300 miles, to Tahiti, 
to obtain books and teachers. Thus mission work was 
commenced on Rimatara, Rapa, and Raivavai. The 
English missionaries afterwards often visited these islands 
to direct the work, which was wholly carried on by na- 
tive teachers, and in a few years the entire population 
renounced heathenism and embraced Christianity. 



p2 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

In 1822 the missionary inspectors, Rev. Daniel Tyer- 
man and Mr. George Bennet, visited these islands. They 
reported of Rurutu as follows : ' ' At daybreak, Septem- 
ter 30, 1822, we distinguished an island seven miles 
long which reminded us of the lovely scenery of Tahiti. 
As we drew near we saw a high central peak with lower 
eminences sloping towards the shore, and intervening 
valleys through which ran fertilizing streams and luxuri- 
ous tropical foliage, and at the head of a bay several 
neat white houses built in English style. A pier one- 
fourth of a mile long had recently been made of huge 
coral blocks for a landing-place. Nearly the whole pop- 
ulation were standing on the beach to receive us, and 
they welcomed us with great joy and affection, the king 
among them, Teuruarii, a young man sixteen years old, 
of light complexion, and the two teachers from Borabora. 
Mr. Ellis preached to two hundred people and baptized 
thirty-one. The chief, Auura, now guardian of the young 
king, said, "We have given up our island to Jesus Christ, 
to be governed by him as our King. We have given our- 
selves to him that we may serve him. We have given our 
property to him for the advancement of his glory ; we 
have given him our all, and desire to be entirely his. " 

At Raivavai (High Islands) they found a chapel of 
plastered wicker-work 180 by 40 feet, with forty- three 
windows, eight doors, and with fifteen pillars — three 
of which were ornamented with wreaths of human beings 
carved out of solid wood. Here Mr. Henry preached 
to 2,000 people and baptized fifty-two adults, among 
whom were the king and queen. 



THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 93 

At Tubuai, where eighteen months previous there had 
been war, they found peace, and were welcomed by the 
king. Here they held a meeting with a congregation of 
270 persons. 

On September24, 1832, Messrs. Whitney, Tinker and 
Alexander, a deputation from Hawaii, visited Rurutu 
on their way to the Marquesas Islands. 

An account of their visit was published by Mr. Alex- 
ander, from which the following quotations are made : 

" When about six miles from Rurutu we were boarded 
by six natives who came to us in a double canoe, the 
whole exterior of which exhibited very neat carved work. 
The sides and stern were tastefully ornamented with 
feathers, and the whole was calculated to give a favor- 
able impression of the ingenuity and enterprise of the 
natives of Rurutu. They informed us that they were 
in the enjoyment of peace and plenty, and that they 
would be glad to receive a visit from us. We accord- 
ingly lowered our boat and followed the canoe, which 
led the way through the entrance between the reefs. 
This entrance is quite intricate and dangerous, being 
not more than ten feet wide. As the swell was heavy 
the surf broke entirely across it ; we however reached 
the shore in safety. Just at the landing a large flag of 
white tapa was streaming in the wind, indicative of 
peace. About thirty natives had assembled on the beach, 
decked in the best their wardrobes could supply ; and 
they welcomed us to their shores with many an ' 1 
orana,' 'Happiness attend you.' We were conducted 
to a large framed house, neatly plastered, in which we 



94 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

found two large comfortable settees, a dining-table, and 
several well-made boxes. Having seated ourselves till 
some cocoanuts should be brought, almost the whole 
population of the village came to say ' / orana. ' All 
the women that I saw were wearing bonnets, which the 
wives of the Tahitian teachers had taught them to make. 

" After being refreshed with the milk of the cocoa- 
nut I took a stroll through the village, and was as 
much surprised as delighted to find most of the houses 
neat, substantial, framed buildings, well plastered, fur- 
nished with settees, tables, bedsteads and boxes — all of 
which, as well as their houses, the Tahitians had taught 
them to make. Most of the people can read, and having 
several copies of the Scriptures they still meet regularly 
for worship, and read and pray together. 

' ' Having procured a guide we set out to cross 
over to the opposite side of the island, where was the 
largest settlement. Before we reached the ascent we 
passed through a delightful grove of famanu, chestnut, 
breadfruit, ironwood, hala, papaya, cocoanut, paper-mul- 
berry, sugar-cane, bananas, etc. We passed by a large 
bed of taro, tracts of sweet-potatoes, and a large orchard 
of pineapples. We found the ascent steep and tiresome, 
the part over which we passed being probably 800 feet 
above the level of the ocean, the highest part of the 
island being 1,200 feet high. The thick brakes and tall 
grass which overhung our path sometimes almost covered 
us. After resting awhile on the summit, under the shade 
of the hau, we had just begun to descend when we met 
a company from the village to which we were going, 



THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. g$ 

loaded with spears and paddles, curiously wrought 
iapas of various patterns, and paroquets, which they 
were bringing over to trade with us. Before we reached 
the foot of the hill we met several other parties who were 
also loaded with similar articles for barter. Exchang- 
ing the salutation, ' / orana , ' we proceeded, entering as 
we descended groves still more dense than those through 
which we had first passed. 

"The inhabitants of the village gave us a cordial 
welcome. The first object that attracted our attention 
was the church, which is a framed building, eighty by 
thirty-six feet, the upright posts painted red, the interven- 
ing spaces lathed and plastered. It has two windows in 
front, one on each side of the door, one in each end, 
and one on each side of the pulpit — which is really a 
neat piece of workmanship. The railing on each side 
of the stairs by which you ascend it is supported by 
eighteen spear-handles. In front of the pulpit is a 
neat painted desk for the clerk. It has a good floor 
of the breadfruit wood and seats of the same material. 
A large number of bamboos of oil are deposited at one 
end of the house, and a pile of tapa in the pulpit, which 
the natives have contributed to the London Missionary 
Society to aid in sending the gospel to the heathen. 
While we were surveying the church a large number 
of the people assembled ; and though they could not 
understand our language we did not consider it im- 
proper to pray with and for them. Mr. Tinker there- 
fore entered the clerk's desk saying, ( E pule tatou, ' l Let 
us pray ;' and the whole assembly kneeled and behaved 



g6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

with much decorum while prayer was offered. The 
church is in the centre of a yard enclosed by a neat 
wooden fence, through which up to the door is a raised 
pavement eight feet wide. Opposite the church we en- 
tered a house of similar construction in which we were 
pleased to find several copies of the Tahitian Bible, six 
or eight well-made chests, two very comfortable bed- 
steads, and two settees. After passing through several 
similar habitations we were led, by one who seemed to 
be the highest chief, to his house. Taking us into a 
back room he presented each of us with a piece of tapa. 

' ' There are in this village twenty-five frame houses 
besides others, after the original fashion, made of bam- 
boos. Taking it as a whole, I have seen no village in the 
Pacific where the generality of the houses are so good, 
or where the people appear more kindly disposed to- 
wards missionaries. They were very anxious that one 
or both of us should stop and live among them. Bid- 
ding them an affectionate farewell we returned to the 
other side of the island, and found the people assem- 
bling to hear a sermon from Mr. Whitney. 

When we reached the house where we first stopped 
after landing we found a good dinner awaiting us, for 
which our walk had sharpened our appetites. It con- 
sisted of roast pig, taro, yam, breadfruit, and cocoanut- 
milk. 

"Just as we were embarking, to return to our vessel, 
we were surprised with the salutation, 'How do you 
do, gentlemen ?' from one who looked like a native. She 
told us that she was a native of Pitcaim Island, from 



THE AUSTRAL ISLANDS. 97 

which she had been absent eight years. She perhaps 
could have given us more satisfactory information re- 
specting the islanders than any one we had met ; but we 
were necessarily in such haste that we could ask but few 
questions. We therefore bade the people farewell and 
pulled away to the schooner, passing through the reefs 
much more easily than we had expected. 

"The number of inhabitants on the island is some- 
where between two and three hundred. The readiness 
with which they parted with their spears showed their 
present disposition for peace and good order. We trust 
that their desire for a missionary to instruct them will 
not long be indulged in vain, and that some one who 
loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity will be sent to show 
them the way of life." 

In 1846 these islands were again visited by Mr. Barff, 
missionary of Huahine, who was greatly encouraged by 
what he witnessed. Peace and purity prevailed among 
the native believers ; the native agents were faithful and 
zealous in their work, and their labors appeared to have 
been crowned with the divine blessing. 

The Rev. Mr. Richards, of the London Society's 
mission at Raiatea, gives an interesting account of a visit 
which he made at Rurutu, Tupuai and Rimatara, in 
company with Rev. Mr. Pearce, of New Guinea, in the 
John Williams, in 1887. The object of the tour was 
not merely to visit the native churches, but to secure 
recruits for the mission in New Guinea. At Rurutu the 
population is increasing, now amounting to seven hundred 
and sixty; and their stone church, with walls two and one- 



98 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

half feet thick, will seat five hundred. The church mem- 
bers number three hundred and eleven, somewhat less than 
one-half the population. Everything indicates thrift and 
careful cultivation, and the people are honest and indus- 
trious. The chief trader said, "I could leave most of 
them alone in my store without any fear of being robbed. " 
When their church was being built the Rurutans heard 
that a large log of foreign wood had been washed ashore 
on an island two hundred and twenty miles distant. They 
at once put to sea, found and purchased the log, and 
brought it to Rurutu, to make seats for their new church. 
The Church gladly gave up one of their members and his 
wife to go as missionaries to New Guinea. 

The increase of the population of Rurutu, from 200 or 
300 in 1833 (at the time of the visit of Mr. Alexander) to 
750 (at the time of the visit of Mr. Richards), and the 
morality and religious prosperity of the natives illustrate 
the advantage of seclusion from the baneful influences of 
unworthy civilized people ; for these islands lie away 
from the usual routes of ships. 

In the year 1890 the London Missionary Society 
gave this mission into the care of the Paris Missionary 
Society ; for these islands had passed under French rule. 
French Protestant missionaries are already at work in 
these islands ; and there will probably be a peaceful 
development of the native churches on Protestant lines. 



THE PEARL ISLANDS. 99 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE PEARL ISLANDS. 

The influence of the Tahitian Mission extended, as 
by a sort of electric induction, to other distant islands 
besides the Austral group. Natives from remote parts 
of the Pacific either visited Tahiti and returning home 
bore tidings about the true religion, or heard the rumor 
of the change of religion in Tahiti, and were thereby in- 
fluenced to abandon idolatry and accept Christianity. 
Thus in the Tuamotu, or Pearl, Archipelago, of which 
an account will now be given, also in the splendid 
island of Rarotonga, and even in far-away Hawaii, most 
delightful results followed the "long night of toil " in 
Tahiti. 

The Tuamotu Islands are situated between 14° and 
24 south latitude, and 134 and 148 west longitude. 
At the southeast extremity of this group are the four 
Gambier Islands, and further south Pitcaim Island, 
famous for the Christian descendants of the mutineers of 
the Bounty. 

The Tuamotu Islands are of coral formation, and 
have little vegetation but cocoanut and pandanus trees. 
The fruits of these trees are the main reliance of the 
inhabitants for subsistence. 

" The Indian's nut alone 
Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can, 
Boat, cable, sail and needle, all in one." 



100 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

What these islands lack in vegetable productions 
and attractions of scenery is in a measure compensated 
for by the products and beauties of their reefs and la- 
goons, which yield an almost inexhaustible supply of 
fish, and also pearls ; which latter have given them the 
name, ' ( Pearl Islands. " At the time of their discovery 
bags of pearls were found in the idol temples and pur- 
chased with muskets. The pearls of the splendid neck- 
lace of Empress Eugenie, and Queen Victoria's pearl 
which is valued at $30,000, were obtained from these 
islands. The pearl-shell itself, as well as the pearl, is 
now an article of traffic. The cost of collecting the 
shells is about $30 per ton ; and the amount realized for 
them in London is $500 per ton. About 200 tons of 
these shells are annually collected here. "The colonies 
of pearl-shells are recruited every year by infant pearl- 
shells, half an inch in diameter, like fairy coins, which 
float in with the tide from the stormy outer seas during 
the months from December to March." 

The phenomena of the lagoons and reefs of these isl- 
ands are a ceaseless delight to all who visit them. Poetic 
rhapsodies have been written about these aqueous gar- 
dens, where the weird and the fantastic mingle with the 
beautiful, where strange sea-urchins, hermit-crabs and 
sea-centipedes roam among scarlet corallines, and bril- 
liant fish flit like butterflies among polyp-anemones and 
coral groves. 

In the warm ocean of this latitude the coral polyp 
grows to the highest perfection and with great rapidity. 
"The French war-vessel, Dayot, once spent two months 



THE PEARL ISLANDS. 101 

in the lagoon of Manga Rewa (of this group) and then 
sailed to Tahiti ; and there specimens of living coral 
were found attached to its copper sheathing, one of 
which, discoidal in shape, with the upper and lower sur- 
faces respectively convex and concave, measured nine 
inches in diameter, and weighed two pounds and four 
ounces. " 

To view these islands and reefs, rising from depths of 
four or five miles to the surface of the ocean through an 
extent of more than 1,500 miles against the long sweep 
of the fiercest billows of storms, is to be profoundly im- 
pressed with the greatness of the work of the inert and 
apparently insignificant polyps that have built them up. 
Thus apparently unimportant agencies sometimes pro- 
duce the vastest results. Thus in the higher realm of 
human life forces despised as weak and insignificant have 
prevailed against the greatest evils, and in these islands 
the gentleness and love of Christianity have overcome 
primeval heathenism and caused the blessings of the 
kingdom of heaven. 

The first missionaries to these islands were their own 
inhabitants returning from exile, In the early part of 
the reign of Pomare II. a number of these fled from their 
homes because of war and landed in Tahiti, and there 
came under the instruction of the London missionaries. 
When the Tahitians renounced idolatry they too cast 
away the idols which they had brought with them and 
accepted the true religion. In the year 1827 they re- 
turned home ; and one of them, Moorea, undertook to 
instruct his countrymen respecting the true religion. At 



102 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

first his people could hardly credit his account of the 
abolition of idolatry in Tahiti, and charged him with de- 
ception ; and he was obliged to flee for his life. But 
soon afterwards others coming from Tahiti confirmed his 
statements, and then the natives burned their idols and 
destroyed their temples. 

The natives of the neighboring islands now hearing 
of these events went by hundreds a distance of 300 miles, 
to Tahiti, to obtain books and to receive instruction, and 
some of them before leaving Tahiti were received by the 
missionaries into church fellowship. The missionaries 
remarked that they seemed to be witnessing a fulfilment 
of the promise, "The isles shall wait for his law." 

In the year 1832 Moorea and another native, Teraa, 
were ordained as evangelists and sent to Anaa, or Chain 
Island, of this group. Not long afterwards a canoe from 
this island brought to Tahiti the tidings that war, canni- 
balism and idolatry had ceased, and that a house of wor- 
ship had been erected in every district. 

In 1839 Mr. Ormond, of the Society Islands Mission, 
visited these islands, and addressed congregations of 300 
or 400 persons and organized churches. 

During the same year Commodore Charles Wilkes, 
commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, 
visited several of these islands, and was much impressed 
with the good work that had been accomplished by the 
native teachers. He said: "Nothing could be more 
striking than the difference that prevailed between these 
natives (those of Raraka, 15 42' south, and 144 west) 
and those of the Disappointment Islands (of the same 



THE PEARL ISLANDS. IO3 

archipelago). The half civilization of the natives of 
Raraka was very marked, and it appeared as though we 
had just issued out of darkness into light. They showed 
a modest disposition to give us a hearty welcome. We 
were not long at a loss what to ascribe it to : the 
missionary had been at work here and his exertions had 
been based on a firm foundation ; the savage had been 
changed to a reasonable creature. Among the inhabi- 
tants was a native missionary who had been instrumental 
in this work. If the missionaries had effected nothing else 
they would deserve the thanks of all those who roam over 
this wide expanse of ocean and incur its many unknown 
and hidden dangers. Here all shipwrecked mariners 
would be sure of kind treatment and a share of the few 
comforts the people possess." 

In the year 1880 France took possession of this 
Tuamotu Archipelago, and shortly afterwards the mis- 
sion of this group was transferred by the London Soci- 
ety to the Paris Missionary Society. The change of gov- 
ernment was not as disastrous to the Pearl Islanders as 
it was to the Tahitians. It is to be hoped that, in the 
greater seclusion of these islands from the demoralizing 
influences of enlightened races, the natives will continue 
to grow in Christian civilization, and that, infinitely 
more precious than the pearls for which traders visit their 
lagoons, many of these dark-hearted natives will be up- 
lifted to adorn the mission enterprise, and to shine at last 
as jewels in the Redeemer's crown. 

Since the subjugation of this group by France it has 
grown in prosperity, and now it has a commercial impor- 



104 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

ance that could not have beem dreamed of at the time 
of its discovery by white men. At that time it seemed 
to be, of all the groups in the Pacific, the most unsuitable 
for the residence of mankind. It had no food-producing 
plants but the pandanus, which yields an almost inedible 
fruit, and almost the only subsistence of its inhabitants was 
derived from its lagoons and the surrounding ocean. But 
its dreary, almost submerged sand-banks, which seemed 
fit only to be eyries of sea-birds or haunts of crabs and 
turtles, have been found to have in proportion to their 
area, the greatest resources for wealth of any of the French 
insular possessions. The London missionaries introduced 
the cocoanut, and this tree was propagated, and now it 
yields abundance of food and very valuable copra for ex- 
port. But a greater source of wealth has been found in 
the pearl and pearl shells of which mention has been made. 
When the McKinley tariff shut off from the United States 
the pearl fabrics of Europe, factories for making such fabrics 
were started in the United States, the price of the pearl 
shells rose, and to procure them traders flocked in great 
numbers to these islands. 

The pearl shells abound in the shallow waters of the 
lagoons, as oysters in the shoals on the American coasts. 
"They bind themselves to the coral rocks by muscular 
filaments, of the thickness of packthread and of irridescent 
hues which change from dark green to golden bronze." 
So strong are these filaments that only a strong man can 
break one of them ; but the natives cut them with knives. 
In the strong muscles out of which they grow pearls are 
found. These do not abound in clean, well-conditioned 



THE PEARL ISLANDS. 105 

shells, but in scabby, ill-appearing ones. Sometimes the 
mistake is made of throwing away shells, because of their 
worthless appearance. A native once left a homely shell 
several days on the beach, thinking it worthless, and on 
opening it found within it a pearl worth a thousand dol- 
lars. An Englishman cooked such a shell, and after- 
wards, as he was eating its contents, feeling a lump in his 
mouth, took out a pearl that would have been wort hve 
hundred dollars, if it had not been spoiled by the cooking. 
In diving for the shells a native looks through a circular 
glass, held just under the surface of the water to prevent 
reflections of light by ripples, and, when he spies a shell 
at the bottom of the lagoon, he dives downward for it, 
descending to depths of from six to twenty fathoms. He 
will remain under water from one to two minutes ; but 
the work is so exhausting that he can engage in it only 
every other day. Those who do this work are short- 
lived, and often die of heart disease or of congestion of 
the brain. Recently diving machines have been intro- 
duced, but the French Government objects to their use. 
Yet it has been proved that by them the beds in which 
the shells lie are cleaned, as a garden may be cleaned of 
weeds, and thus the quality of the shells is improved and 
their quantity increased. It has been estimated that the 
yield of the lagoons may thus be doubled. After a lagoon 
has been fished, the French Government shuts it up for 
five years, that a new crop may grow. Only about one 
third of the lagoons have pearl shells; but by a little 
enterprise the French Government might plant those that 
have none, and thus treble the yield of the group. 



106 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Those who dive for the shells tell of singular sights they 
see in the subaqueous regions, of strange avenues formed 
by ocean currents through forests of coral, of splendid 
masses of shells hanging in clusters from pendant rocks 
and of curious and beautiful fishes that swarm around 
them. They tell also of dangers attending their work. 
Unless they are exceedingly careful their air- tubes become 
entangled with the rocks, and their supplies of air cut off, 
and they become unable to ascend. Sometimes they 
unwittingly insert their feet between the valves of the 
huge shells, tridacnas, and the valves close and hold 
them till they are drowned ; and sometimes they are 
annoyed and terrified by sharks. A diver was once 
approached by one of these monsters, and it persistently 
circled around him, drawing nearer and nearer. He 
backed up against a rock, and when it was alarmingly 
near, squeezed his helmet, so as to send forth bubbles 
and scare it away ; but it returned again and again, and 
finally drew so close that he placed his basket as a buffer 
under his feet, signalled to his partner, and was quickly 
drawn to his boat. 

Formerly the natives had little conception of the value 
of the pearls and shells, and traded them away for paltry 
trinkets. A Mr. Brander of Tahiti, seeing a native with 
a remarkably large pearl, induced him to sell it for ten 
pounds of tobacco, and afterwards found that it was worth 
a thousand dollars. He stationed a trader on one of the 
atolls to buy shells, offering a yard of calico, worth about 
twelve cents, for a cubic yard of shells, worth about five 
hundred dollars. Returning to the atoll the following 



THE PEARL ISLANDS. 107 

year, he found a great pile of shells collected for himself. 
He leaped upon the pile, swung his hat in the air, and 
exclaimed " Good-bye, poverty ! " The pile brought him 
a hundred thousand dollars. 

The natives now know the value of the pearls and shells, 
and charge for them all they are worth. By diving for 
them they earn from ten to fifteen dollars a day. By 
finding a pearl they sometimes realize much more. They 
are therefore becoming wealthy, as compared with the 
natives of the other groups. In place of their former 
hovels of cocoanut thatch, they are constructing sub- 
stantial houses of foreign lumber, and they are supplying 
themselves with the comforts and luxuries of civilization. 

Most of the natives have been brought into heavy 
indebtedness to the traders. These, to oblige them to 
collect shells, have sold to them at exorbitant prices and 
on credit at high interest whatever merchandise they have 
desired. The indebtedness, into which they have brought 
them, amounts in the aggregate to a million dollars. 

Some of the natives have displayed remarkable energy 
in paying off debts. One of these, Napue, a half-caste 
of Hakaroa, entered into partnership with a merchant of 
Tahiti, and, by the merchant's recklessness, became in- 
volved in a debt amounting to $60,000, due the firm of 
McArthur, London. He arranged to settle for his share 
of the debt by a payment of $25,000. By desperate ex- 
ertions he succeeded in making the payment. He still 
continues to labor industriously. He employs five- 
hundred natives in propagating cocoanut trees and in 
planting the choicest varieties of tropical trees. For the 



108 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

latter he imports rich soil by vessels that bring it as bal- 
last, and take away cargoes of copra and shells. He has 
become quite wealthy, and is virtually the king of his 
island. 

In the year 1896 the exports of this group were 450 
tons of pearl shells, valued at $225,000, and 6,000 tons 
of copra, valued at $66,000. Were the resources fully 
developed the exports would probably amount in value 
to a million dollars per annum. The population has been 
diminishing. In 1892 it was 3,600. 

The people of this group and of Easter Island use in 
their language many words not found in the languages of 
the other Pacific Islanders. This fact, and the fact that 
in Easter Island many of the ancient idols were repre- 
sentations of alligators — animals not found in any islands 
east of the Solomon Group — indicate that in ancient times 
people of South America migrated to this group and to 
Easter Island. 

For many years after the seizure of this group by the 
French the Evangelical Missionary Society of Paris was 
unable to send missionaries thither. The result is that 
the great mass of the people are in about equal numbers 
Roman Catholic or Mormon. There are about three 
hundred Evangelical Christians, and about the same 
number of Seventh-Day Adventists. 

Yet the good work performed in this group by the 
London missionaries has had abiding results. It has pre- 
vented the natives from becoming as degraded and 
wretched as are the Marquesans who have been almost 
solely under Roman Catholic training. The natives of 



THE PEARL ISLANDS. IO9 

this group are a peaceful, law-abiding, and industrious 
people. Few of them are ever convicted of crimes of 
violence ; cases of murder are unknown ; the chief con- 
victions are for drunkenness. The work of the London 
missionaries made possible for them their present econ- 
omic prosperity. Recently the evangelical missionaries 
of Tahiti have here maintained two Tahitian missionaries. 

In the middle of January, 1903, this group was swept 
1>y a terrific storm from the northeast. The tremendous 
surges, raised by the wind, overwhelmed the atolls and 
swept away almost every house. Only the natives who 
climbed to the tops of the cocoanut trees escaped. The 
total number of deaths was five hundred and fifteen. 
Eight hundred canoes and one hundred sail-boats were 
wrecked or lost. 

In February, 1906 a similar tempest swept over the 
yroup and caused two hundred deaths. Because of these 
storms many of the natives have migrated to the Society 
islands. 



I IO THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 

After the influence of the Tahitian mission had 
caused the wonderful changes that have been recounted 
in the Austral and Pearl Islands the missionaries made 
direct efforts to evangelize other groups. It had early 
entered into their plans to make the Society Islands ra- 
diating centres for mission enterprises to the rest of the 
Pacific. In 1878 a great meeting was held at Tahiti in 
which King Pomare proposed the formation of a society 
to be auxiliary to the London Missionary Society, and 
the assembly, to the number of 3,000, unanimously and 
enthusiastically voted assent ; and the society was duly 
organized. A few months afterwards a similar society 
was organized in Raiatea. But these societies continued 
inactive until the arrival of the boat bringing tidings of 
the overthrow of idolatry in Rurutu, when they earnestly 
proposed to send missionaries to other islands. 

The first person to lead off in this new movement 
was Rev. John Williams ; who had remarked that it did 
not seem to him to fulfil his missionary obligation 
for him to quietly labor for a few hundreds of people on 
a single island while multitudes were in the darkness of 
heathenism on other islands. With this view he took 
the occasion of being obliged to go for his health to 
New South Wales, to take native teachers to the Hervey 




Heathen Village at Aitutahi, Hervey Island. 




Christian Village at Aitutahi, Hekvey Island. 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. III. 

Islands, and persuaded the captain of the vessel on 
which he took passage to turn a little from his course 
and convey them thither. 

The Hervey Islands are fifteen in number, consisting 
of six principal islands and nine small coral islets. They 
are situated from 500 to 600 miles southwest of Tahiti, 
between 18° and 22 south latitude and 157 and 1630 
west longitude. They are of three kinds : 1. low coral- 
line islands, rising but a few feet above the sea, having 
little vegetation except cocoanuts, pandanus and stunted 
hibiscus, of which class are the islands Hervey, Mauke, 
and Mitiaro ; 2. elevated coral islands, which average 
from 100 to 500 feet in height and are very fertile and 
covered with luxuriant vegetation, of which class are 
Aitutaki, Atiu, and Mangaia ; and, 3. one island of vol- 
canic formation, the high and mountainous Rarotonga, 
an island so picturesque and beautiful with its rocky 
peaks and tropical vegetation that it has been well called 
"the Queen of the South Seas." 

The inhabitants of these islands, unlike those of the 
Society group, were somewhat addicted to cannibalism 
and even more continually engaged in savage wars, and 
in other respects equally depraved and barbarous. As 
has been mentioned, in the year 1823 Mr. Williams vis- 
ited Hervey Island and found that by frequent and ex- 
terminating wars the population there had been reduced 
to sixty in number ; six years afterwards he again visited 
this island and found that the fighting had continued till 
the only survivors were five men, three women, and a 
few children, and these were still contending as to which 



112 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

of them should be king. The island Mitiaro also was 
almost depopulated by war and famine. 

The history of the mission enterprises in these islands, 
as told by Mr. Williams, from whose book the following 
accounts are taken, reads like a romance. When Mr. 
Williams arrived at Aitutaki the natives came off to his 
vessel like the escaped inmates of an insane asylum, 
dancing, shouting, and making frantic gestures. Mr. 
Williams soon found that he could readily converse with 
them in the Tahitian language, and informed them of 
the downfall of idolatry in Tahiti and easily persuaded 
them to receive two teachers to reside among them. 

These teachers, on landing, were taken to a marae 
(temple) and presented to idols and then robbed of their 
property, and for many months afterwards were in great 
privation and peril. After they had labored several 
months a native of.Raiatea brought them a supply of 
school-books and hymn-books, with which he swam 
ashore from a passing vessel. This native, on landing, 
was taken to a marae and presented to an idol. Look- 
ing up at the huge image he struck it, and asked the 
people why they did not burn it, and advised them to 
listen to their teachers. They replied that if Mr. Wil- 
liams would return they would burn their idols. 

The teachers finally gained an advantage by the fail- 
ure of the priest to cause the recovery from sickness of 
the king's favorite daughter, who died in spite of extraor- 
dinary offerings to the idols. Disappointed and enrage d 
by her death, he ordered that all the idols and temples 
should be destroyed. But the teachers persuaded him, 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 1 13 

instead of destroying the idols, to send them as trophies 
to Tahiti ; whereupon the whole population, district by 
district, the chiefs and priests leading the way, came and 
cast down their idols at their feet. 

The natives now proceeded to erect a chapel for the 
worship of the true God, the teachers instructing them 
how to build it ; also how to make lime from coral for 
plastering its walls. The latter process at first amused 
them, and some of them exclaimed in ridicule, "Let 
hurricanes now blow down our breadfruit and banana 
trees, we shall never suffer from lack of food ; for these 
strangers are roasting stones. " But when they saw the 
use made of the lime in forming the white walls of the 
chapel they were filled with admiration and moved to 
employ the same process in building houses for them- 
selves. The chapel then built measured 300 feet by 30. 
Its roof was completed in two days, and the whole build- 
ing soon after. 

Mr. Williams again visited Aitutaki eighteen months 
afterwards, accompanied by a brother missionary, Mr. 
Bourne, and by a number of native teachers for new 
mission work on other islands. On arriving at this isl- 
and, where not long before he had seen wild savages, he 
was surprised and delighted to be greeted by the excla- 
mations, "Good is the Word of God. It is now well 
with Aitutaki. The good Word has taken root at Aitu- 
taki." And his wonder and delight grew as he saw the 
large chapel and the collections of discarded idols. In 
passing through the village he saw two idols in use as 
posts to support the roof of a kitchen, and bought them 



114 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

with two fish-hooks. The owner gave them a kick as he 
parted with them, saying, "Your reign is now over." 
Mr. Williams preached in a chapel to a congregation of 
2,000 people from the words of John 3:16. 

It is delightful to imagine what must have been the 
effect on those islanders of the truths proclaimed in that 
discourse as well as in the instructions of the native 
teachers. A little information from the outside world 
had occasionally been brought to them by natives in 
canoes driven by storms from other islands, and much 
more by Capt. Cook and other navigators ; but never 
had such a light dawned on them as came in that mes- 
sage of God's love. ' { The people that sat in darkness 
saw great light, and to them in the region and shadow 
of death light sprang up. " 

Taking now on board his vessel a strange cargo of 
the thirty-one discarded idols of Aitutaki, Mr. Williams 
continued his missionary voyage, and soon came to the 
island Mangai?, which is an elevated coral island twenty- 
five miles in circumference, and has a population of 
about 3,000. Here the natives were persuaded to re- 
ceive two teachers ; but no sooner were they landed 
than they were seized, robbed, and treated with great 
brutality. The vessel then fired two cannon, which 
frightened the natives away and gave the teachers an op- 
portunity to escape to the vessel. 

Soon after the departure of Mr. Williams an epidemic 
on this island caused many deaths, which the natives 
attributed to the wrath of the God of the white men be- 
cause of their abuse of the teachers. They therefore 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 1 15 

gladly welcomed two unmarried Tahitian teachers who 
were brought to them during the following year. 

From Mangaia Mr. Williams and his companions 
went to a little coral island called Atiu, and persuaded 
the king of this island to come aboard the vessel, in- 
formed him of the overthrow of idolatry at Tahiti, and 
showed him the rejected idols of Aitutaki. "He was 
profoundly impressed by what he heard and saw, and 
especially by the reading of the following words of 
Isaiah, ' With part thereof he roasteth roast and is satis- 
fied, and the residue thereof he maketh a god, and wor- 
shipped it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my 
god. ' " In the language of this island two words simi- 
lar in sound expressed opposite ideas : moa, meaning 
things sacred to the gods, and noa, things profane or 
common, such as food. The chief now saw the folly of 
making a god and cooking food from the same tree, 
uniting the moa and the noa. His wonder grew as he 
spent the night in conversation with the teachers ; and 
he frequently arose and stamped with his feet in aston- 
ishment. In the morning he informed the missionaries 
that he would destroy his idols and welcome teachers. 

Learning from this king that there were two more 
islands under his dominion, Mitiaro and Mauke, islands 
that had never yet been seen by civilized men, the mis- 
sionaries persuaded him to pilot them thither. On arri- 
ving at these islands they exhorted the people to renounce 
idolatry, and by the aid of the king succeeded in per- 
suading them to do so and to receive teachers. 

Mr. Williams often afterwards visited these three isl- 



Il6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

ands and was always gratified by the steady improve- 
ment of the natives, and sometimes preached to congre- 
gations of from 1,500 to 2,000 people. 

Learning from the king of Atiu that there was an- 
other island further south, Rarotonga, which had never 
yet been seen by white men, the missionaries sailed to 
search for it ; but baffling winds retarded their course, 
their supply of provisions nearly gave out, and finally 
they were about to give up the search when a sailor 
from the mast-head descried this island in the distance. 
It is thirty miles in circumference, very attractive with 
lofty mountains and verdant valleys, and has a large area 
of land under high cultivation between the mountains 
and the ocean. The population at that time was about 
7,000. 

On the arrival of the vessel the king of this island 
came on board and readily consented to receive two 
teachers and their wives. But the next morning these 
teachers returned in a canoe in a pitiable condition, with 
a sad tale of brutal treatment they had received ; for a 
chief of a neighboring district had endeavored to take 
the wife of one of them for his harem, in which he 
already had nineteen wives, and she was rescued only 
after a desperate struggle. One of the unmarried teach- 
ers, Papeiha, now offered to go ashore alone, if another 
teacher, whom he named, should be sent to labor with 
him, and the project was approved ; and with nothing 
but a Testament and a few school-books he swam ashore, 
and after a little rough treatment was permitted to dwell 
in peace among the people. 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. WJ 

A beautiful illustration was now discovered of the 
influence of the Tahitian Mission on distant groups. A 
woman from Tahiti had come to this island and informed 
its people of the arrival at Tahiti of white men from for- 
eign lands, of their superior utensils, of their knives, 
axes, and looking-glasses, and of their new form of re- 
ligion, and had made such an impression on them that 
one of their chiefs had named one of his children Te- 
hova (Jehovah), and another Jetu Terai (Jesus Christ) ; 
and thus they were partly prepared to receive Chris- 
tianity. 

It was a delightful thought to Mr. Williams that the 
first message from the outside world to this island and 
to Mitiaro and Mauke was the gospel ; which was al- 
most as wonderful and joyful to the natives in their deep 
darkness as the glad tidings that angels sang to the an- 
cient shepherds in Bethlehem. 

Overjoyed at having discovered these islands and 
introduced the gospel as the first message to them Mr. 
Williams and his companion now returned to Raiatea, 
and as they approached that island hung out on the 
yard-arms of their vessel, as tokens of the success of 
their voyage, the thirty-one idols which they had taken 
from Aitutaki. ' ' The natives of Raiatea were greatly 
moved by these visible evidences of the downfall of idol- 
atry in Aitutaki. " 

The assistant teacher who was asked for by Papeiha 
was soon afterwards sent to him, and they together 
visited all the chiefs on Rarotonga and reasoned with 
them about the folly of idolatry. Impressed by their ex- 



Il8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

hortations, one of the priests at length brought a great 
idol to destroy it. A crowd of the natives followed him, 
calling him a madman, and when he applied a saw to 
the head of the idol they fled in terror into the thick- 
ets. When however they saw that no harm came to the 
priest they returned, and when he proceeded to roast 
bananas in the ashes of the idol and to eat them they 
were convinced of the folly of their superstitions. Hear- 
ing of these acts of the priest the chiefs now renounced 
idolatry, and proceeded to erect a chapel for Christian 
worship. And so it happened that, within a year after 
the discovery of this island, its idols were abandoned, 
and a church-building 600 feet in length erected for the 
worship of the true God. 

When Mr. Williams returned to this island, as he did, 
accompanied by his wife, in 1827, for a permanent resi- 
dence, he was treated to a novel public reception. By 
request of the teachers he took a seat in front of one 
of their homes and then the natives came in procession 
from different districts and deposited fourteen idols at 
his feet. "Some of these idols were torn to pieces be- 
fore his eyes ; others were used to decorate rafters of a 
chapel, and one was sent to England." 

Mr. Williams now gained a new influence with the 
people by the wonder that was excited by the art of 
writing. Having one morning forgotten to take a car- 
penter's square to his work of building a chapel he wrote 
on a chip a message to his wife, requesting her to send 
the square to him, and asked a chief to take the chip to 
her. The chief at first incredulously refused to do so, 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. H9 

but after a little urging complied, and was greatly 
amazed when Mrs. Williams handed him the square. 
Holding up the chip, he ran through the village exclaim- 
ing, " These Englishmen make chips talk." The con- 
sequence was that, when the matter was explained, the 
natives were very eager to learn to read and to receive 
the other instructions of the missionaries. 

A touching illustration of their eagerness to learn the 
way of life was afforded in the case of a cripple, who by 
disease had lost his hands and feet but was exceedingly 
industrious in tilling the ground and raising food for 
his wife and three children. As he was unable to 
go to hear Mr. Williams preach he sat beside the road 
and inquired of one and another of the natives, as they 
were returning from the meetings, what Mr. Williams 
had said, and thus acquired enough knowledge to be- 
come a sincere Christian. 

On the 2 1 st of December, 1831, Rarotonga was vis- 
ited by a terrific hurricane, which lasted three days and 
destroyed nearly every house on the island, and pros- 
trated thousands of breadfruit trees and hundreds of 
thousands of banana trees. The ocean increased the 
destruction, rolling in great waves far up on the land, 
and carried the missionary vessel several hundred feet 
inland. It was only with great difficulty afterwards drag- 
ged back to the ocean and repaired. In this storm the 
families of the missionaries suffered greatly ; but they 
found refuge with the natives in the sheltered nooks of 
the mountains. 

In many other respects it was not all sunshine for 



120 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Mr. Williams and the other missionaries who afterwards 
came to aid him in this beautiful island. Clouds more 
appalling than those of hurricanes sometimes gathered 
over them. Their lives were repeatedly darkened by dire 
bereavement, graves were made for their little ones and 
wives near their homes, there were defections of hopeful 
converts and occasional outbreaks of fiendish character 
in their churches. As the rocks loomed up through the 
bright foliage around them so griefs and discouragements 
rose through the triumphs of their heaven-like enterprise. 
But the holy joy they experienced in their work far sur- 
passed their sorrows. 

The London Missionary Society at length located 
two missionaries, Messrs. Buzacot and Pitman, on 
Rarotonga to labor in conjunction with Mr. Williams, 
and by their joint labors churches were organized in all 
parts of the island, the chiefs were influenced to form 
codes of law for governing the people, and the Avarua 
Institution was established, from which many native 
missionaries went to other groups of islands. 

Of the progress of the mission work in the island Mr. 
Bourne testified in 1825 : "Much has been said concern- 
ing the success of the gospel in Tahiti and the Society 
Islands ; but it is not to be compared with its progress 
in Rarotonga. In Tahiti European missionaries labored 
for fifteen years before the least fruit appeared. But two 
years ago Rarotonga was hardly known to exist, was 
not marked on any of the charts, and we spent mucji 
time in traversing the ocean in search of it. And now I 
scruple not to say that the attention of the people of 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 121 

this island to the means of grace, their practice of fami- 
ly and private prayer, equals whatever has been witnessed 
in Tahiti and the neighboring islands. And when we 
look at the means it becomes more astonishing. Two 
native teachers, not particularly distinguished among 
their own countrymen, have been the instruments of 
effecting this wonderful change, and that before a single 
missionary had set his foot upon the island." 

The last visit Mr. Williams made to this island was 
in 1834. Of the change in the condition of the people 
he said, "When I found them, in 1823, they were igno- 
rant of the nature of Christian worship ; and when I 
left them, in 1834, I am not aware that there was a 
house in the island where family prayer was not observed 
every morning and every evening. " 

In 1 84 1 the directors of this mission reported "that 
in Rarotonga the Christian churches presented a most 
impressive and animating aspect, both as to numbers 
and character; and the social and moral character of 
the people, a few years previous loathsome and terrific, 
was then pure and peaceful. One of the most consist- 
ent members of the church, and an active evangelist, 
was in the days of his youth a cannibal. An institution 
was commenced about this time at Avarua for the train- 
ing of native missionaries, in which young men are in- 
structed in Christian theology and other branches of use- 
ful knowledge." 

In 1888, Rev. W. Wyatt Gill, in a meeting in Lon- 
don, gave a statement of his work as a missionary in the 
Hervey Islands since 185 1. "He spoke of the former 



122 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

condition of the people, of their love of revenge and 
of their human sacrifices, of the bloody feuds that existed 
among them, of the rule, followed by all, of keeping 
alive only two children in a family, and of the whole 
aspect of their life as something fearful ; and stated that 
all this had been changed through the influence of 
Christianity. He remarked that to see a people who 
once were cannibals partaking of the Lord's Supper 
has been most delightful Looking around upon this 
assembly gathered for this purpose he had seen the 
bread administered by one to a man whose father that 
man had murdered, or the reverse. He stated that 
the work of evangelization in many of the South Pacific 
Islands had been done almost entirely by natives trained 
in the Avarua school ; that hundreds of these natives 
have sacrificed their lives to carry the gospel to their 
brethren, and that sixty of Mr. Gill's own church have 
been killed while acting as missionaries. " 

In the year 1853 the writer, while on a voyage from 
Hawaii to the United States by way of Cape Horn, 
visited Aitutaki and Rarotonga in company with a son 
of the missionary Rev. D. B. Lyman, of Hawaii. At 
Aitutaki we landed on a coral pier which measured 600 
feet in length and eighteen in breadth, and which had 
been constructed by the natives in 1826. A great mul- 
titude of the natives had come together on this pier to 
shake hands and to give the friendly greeting, ' ' Orana " 
(happiness to you), a reception quite unlike that once 
previously given to a company of shipwrecked sailors 
who, before the coming of missionaries, landed at this 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 123 

place and were immediately seized by the natives, 
dragged into the thickets, and killed. 

About the first object that attracted our attention was 
a handsome church built of hewn coral, not far from 
the beach. Inquiring for the missionary, we were con- 
ducted to the residence of Rev. Mr. Royle, who occu- 
pied a comfortable building embowered under noble 
orange trees. Very kindly Mr. Royle provided horses 
and a guide, by which we went across the island (only 
three miles wide and nine long. ) In our ride we passed 
through a continuous garden of great beauty and fruit- 
fulness. Great forest-trees, a species of banyan, the hau, 
and the kukui, grew beside the path, while cocoanut, 
breadfruit, orange and banana trees everywhere abound- 
ed. The interior was covered with jungle, but there 
were clearings planted with potatoes, yams, taro, and 
pineapples. The houses of the natives were substantial 
buildings, constructed with hewn coral and masonry, 
and surrounded by delightful gardens enclosed with 
coral walls. 

We scarcely saw a woman on the island ; for they 
had well learned to conceal themselves when ships ar- 
rived. Mr. Royle informed us that often seamen, en- 
chanted by the beauty of this island, would desert their 
ships, but invariably in a few weeks they would be 
wearied of the monotony of life in this quiet island, and 
eager to embark on any vessel coming thither. 

Just as we were about to return to our ship we were 
sent for by the natives, and going with them found a 
great crowd assembled who opened a way for us to 



124 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

come into their midst. We were then addressed by the 
chief of the island, who presented us with an immense 
quantity of fruit, vegetables and curios, as a token of 
the regard he and his people entertained for missiona- 
ries and their children. We thanked them for their 
generosity, and bade them a frienly adieu. 

We found the island Rarotonga even more attractive 
than Aitutaki. It combined with the beauty of luxuriant 
tropical vegetation the grandeur of lofty mountains and 
magnificent valleys, and was strikingly picturesque, with 
rocky spires and jutting crags rising out of its sea of 
foliage. Here, too, we found a fine church ; and en- 
joyed the kind hospitality of the veteran missionary 
Rev. Mr. Buzacot. He informed us that a few years 
previous a great hurricane had blown down one-half the 
trees of this island. Yet, as we went about with him 
along the shore and far up one of the valleys, we seemed 
to be walking under a continuous shade of orange, 
banana, and other trees. The natives were a fine-looking 
people, and seem to lack little more than the color, the 
wealth, the outward garb of enlightened races to rank 
with civilized communities. It was a great pleasure 
to meet these veteran missionaries, witness the wonder- 
ful results of their labors, and pass for a few brief hours 
from the tedium of a long sea voyage into the enchant- 
ment of these tropical islands. 

In 1889, by the invitation of the chiefs and people of 
the Hervey group, a British Protectorate was proclaimed 
over their islands. This at present means simply that no 
other nation is to be allowed to annex these islands. 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 125 

In the Report of 1891 of the London Missionary 
Society it is stated that ' ' with the increase of their 
wants in their growing intelligence there has been an in- 
crease of thrift and industry ; that they are building 100- 
ton vessels, and extensively engaged in planting coffee 
and cotton." 

A correspondent of a newspaper of Auckland testifies 
that "the Rarotongans are the most advanced of all the 
South Sea islanders in European industrial civilization. 
They have become efficient artisans and mechanics ; they 
build houses after the colonial type, also wagons and 
boats ; they work extensive plantations and cotton gin- 
ning machines ; they are good seamen, valued for their 
docility, industry, and contented disposition. They 
cultivate largely oranges and limes : of the former they 
export millions ; from the limes they express the juice 
and ship it in small barrels, some 2,000 gallons yearly 
being sent away from the island. They also export cot- 
ton, coffee, bananas, arrow-root, and copra. Thus they 
thrive, are contented and happy, because free and unop- 
pressed, and at liberty to enjoy the fruits of their labors. " 

One instance of the benevolence of the natives of 
Mangaia illustrates the Christian character of the people 
of the Hervey Islands. In the Report of the London 
Missionary Society for the year 1892 it is stated that the 
people of Mangaia, in number about 1,900, after paying 
all their school and church expenses and the stipends of 
three native pastors, contributed for general missionary 
enterprises upwards of $1,700. 

In the year 1906 the author re-visited this group, going 



126 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

thither by a steamer plying between Auckland and Tahiti. 
The steamer touched first at Mauke, an island two miles 
wide, and at its highest point one hundred and twenty 
feet high. It is called an elevated coral island, but it is 
as truly of volcanic formation as the other islands of this 
group and those of the Tonga and Fiji groups. Like them 
it is composed at its centre of volcanic rocks and soil, and 
has between the centre and the shore an expanse of 
elevated coral reef fifty feet high and from a quarter of a 
mile to a mile in breadth. In the centre of this island 
there is an extinct crater, three hundred feet broad and 
sixty feet deep, from which several caves, the ancient 
conduits of lava-flows, extend to the ocean. 

The Ex-Resident, Mr. Exham, told of an exciting ex- 
perience he once had in such a cave on the adjacent island, 
Atiu. He entered the cave to catch eels, two feet long, 
in a stream flowing through it, and stumbled and fell and 
extinguished his torch in the water. As the cave had 
many branches, he was obliged to remain in it till noon of 
the next day, when his friends came and guided him out. 

The plain of elevated coral reef along the shores of this 
island has been fertilized by soil, washed by rain torrents 
from the volcanic area, and is covered with a dense jungle 
of trees, all mantled with vines and parasitic ferns. 

This island and the other islands of this group are of 
great interest, because here Christian Missions have had 
their best opportunity. As has been mentioned, the first 
message from enlightened countries to this group was the 
Gospel. By its isolation away from the usual routes of 
ships, this group has escaped the contaminating and de- 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. \2J 

structive influences that come from civilized countries ; and 
now, as it is more frequently visited by ships, it has secured 
the protection and assistance of Great Britain. In 1888 
the chiefs, fearing that the group would be seized by 
France, sent Queen Makea, of Rarotonga, to New Zealand, 
to apply for a British Protectorate. A British warship 
was at once dispatched, and its Commander raised the 
British Flag at Rarotonga, proclaiming the Protectorate 
over the entire group. This Act was a great surprise to 
the French, who at that time were far advanced in intrigues 
for possession. In 1901 the group was incorporated with 
Great Britain ; a British Resident was stationed at Raro- 
tonga ; and it was arranged that a Legislature and Judiciary, 
conducted mostly by natives, should rule the group, subject 
to the New Zealand Government. 

In the island, Mauke, there has been an illustration of 
the ancient savage ferocity of its people. Its present in- 
habitants are not descendants of its original people. 
Many years ago a tribe from Atiu, went thither and killed 
every man, woman and child on the island, and the present 
inhabitants are descendants of that tribe. 

At the time of our arrival a great multitude of the natives 
were assembled on the beach, awaiting opportunity to ship 
freight by the steamer. They were clothed in the style of 
the Tahitians, and many of them wreathed with flowers 
and alyxia vines. Their King indicated his royalty by a 
black alpaca suit with brass buttons and a red sash around 
his waist. All day the men waded in shallow water over 
a coral bench five hundred feet, carrying great crates of 
oranges, two men to a crate, to boats tossing in the surf 



128 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

on the outer edge of the reef. Fifteen hundred crates 
were thus taken off to the steamer ; and this seemed to be 
only a beginning of shipping the fruit of this little island. 
The passengers of the steamer were in the same way 
conveyed ; but the natives cheerfully did the service, for 
the pay they received. 

A broad road led from the beach to the settlement, 
which consisted of houses of white-washed coral, covered 
with pandanus thatch or with corrugated sheets of iron. 
Amidst the houses was a massive church and a fine school- 
house. The floors, pews, pulpit and ceiling of the church 
were of breadfruit and callophyllum timber. In the 
dwelling-houses were foreign furniture, neat matting on the 
floors, and large Bibles on the tables, and around the 
houses orange, cocoanut, coffee and banana trees. 

Leaving this island in the evening, we passed by the 
islands Atiu and Mitiaro, and the next morning arrived at 
Aitutaki, an island three miles wide, nine long, and three 
hundred and sixty feet high. Before us was an extensive 
lagoon over which fishing canoes were gliding to and fro ; 
at the extremities of the island were charming islets covered 
with cocoa palms ; and over all the island there was a 
magnificent forest, plumed with cocoanut fronds. On this 
little island there are three massive churches, one of them 
one hundred and forty feet long and forty feet wide. We 
are informed that this supply of churches was not excessive 
for so small an island, and that these churches were often 
filled to overflowing. 

We arrived at Rarotonga during the celebration of the 
Centennial of the London Missionary Society. The 



THE HERVEY ISLANDS. 1 29 

natives were hastening in great numbers to their six large 
churches for attendance at the celebration. They were 
admirably attired, even the children were neatly clothed, 
the little lads with white suits and red sashes around their 
waists, and the little girls with dainty pink and white 
dresses. At Avarua an immense assemblage were listening 
with rapt attention to accounts of the great work of God 
throughout the world during the previous century. The 
singing was singularly enlivening, a combination of their 
ancient chants with foreign melodies. 

We secured a carriage drawn by a fine span of horses, 
and made the circuit of the island, which is only eighteen 
miles in circumference, in two hours. Much of our route 
was through luxuriant forests growing on the elevated 
bench of coral. We passed through six towns of white- 
washed coral houses, surrounded by attractive lawns, and 
observed in each of the towns a large church and a school- 
house. At the base of a ridge waving with palm plumes 
we found the missionary's house and the Avarua Institute, 
near together, in an extensive lawn of bermudas grass, 
interspersed with clusters of blooming oleander. 

The natives of this group have the reputation of being 
the most industrious and enterprising of the Pacific 
islanders. They build vessels of a hundred tons burthen, 
and gather from their remote ports and from the Austral, 
Gambier and other islands freight for the steamers plying 
between their ports and New Zealand. They generally 
own the lands on which they reside, and they are forbidden 
to sell the lands without special permits c rom their legis- 
lature. The result is that they are in independent cir- 



130 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

cumstances, and are secure against becoming "hewers of 
wood and drawers of water " to the foreign population 
coming into the group. 

The exports are chiefly copra, oranges, pineapples? 
coffee, bananas, vanilla, and lime-juice. The lime-juice is 
extracted by trampling the limes in canoes, and is used in 
New Zealand for cleaning wool. The most profitable 
product is copra. The cocoanut costs little to plant and 
cultivate, comes into bearing in five years, yields annually 
seventy to two hundred nuts, and a profit of $40 to $80 an 
acre. In 1904 the total exports were worth $191,000. 
For a group, only 142 square miles in area, and with only 
one-third of that area under cultivation, this is not a bad 
showing. 

The Government has strictly forbidden the sale of in- 
toxicating liquors to the natives, except in cases in which 
a physician and a missionary jointly recommend it. Since 
foreigners must have stimulants, sales to them of intoxicants, 
kept in bond by the Government, are permitted, by orders 
on the Government for three bottles apiece per week. 

The natives are peaceful, law-abiding and prosperous. 
There is not a pauper among them. The foreign residents 
testified to the author that the natives could more generally 
read and write, and were on an average more moral and 
more religious than are the people of England and the 
United States, and that they were increasing in number. 

In 1905 the population was 5,961, the number of 
church-members 2,430, and of ordained ministers 20. 
Many of the natives are laboring heroically as missionaries 
in New Guinea. 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 131 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 

The Pilgrim Fathers, who left their native land and 
crossed the ocean and braved the horrors of the Ameri- 
can wilderness to obtain civil and religious liberty, 
founded the most prosperous and progressive nation of 
human history and created a new era in the world. 
But a higher movement began when there went out 
from the United States and other enlightened countries 
pilgrims seeking not so much to establish their own 
rights as to promote the welfare of others, and even to 
lift up and save the most unworthy and degraded of 
mankind — a movement which promises to transform the 
whole human race and bring in the latter-day glory of 
the world. 

In America this movement began by the organiza- 
tion of the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions, which was formed on September 5, 18 10, 
at Farmington, Conn. This Society, like the Lon- 
don Missionary Society, was at first undenominational. 
For many years after its organization it was connected 
with the Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed 
and Reformed German Churches. Its first mission enter- 
prise was to India in 1813 ; its next was to Palestine in 
1 8 19 ; and almost simultaneous with the latter began its 
mission to the Hawaiian Islands. As the British socie- 



132 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

ties had undertaken the evangelization of the islands of 
the South Pacific this American Association directed its 
attention to those of the North Pacific ; and in process 
of time there was an agreement that the Equator should 
be the boundary between their respective missions. 

So many descriptions of the Hawaiian Islands have 
been published in the United States that to describe 
them to Americans is like describing parts of their own 
country. But a brief description seems necessary for a 
clear understanding of their history. 

The name, Hawaiian Islands, has recently taken the 
place of that of Sandwich Islands, which was given by 
Capt. Cook in honor of his patron, Lord Sandwich ; 
and sometimes this group is called simply Hawaii, a 
name derived from its principal island. 

The Hawaiian Islands are the only important islands 
in the North Pacific east of Micronesia. The cosmic 
forces that upheaved the lands from the ocean seem to 
have been exerted in the North Pacific in forming this 
one principal group, which, perhaps for that reason, is 
the larger, loftier, and better adapted for a great popula- 
tion. But in the North Pacific there is a system of nu- 
merous islands like that of the South Pacific, only in the 
North Pacific the islands have not been fully developed, 
or many of them have been lost by subsidence. Chains 
of embryo or rudimentary islands are found extending 
from southeast to northwest throughout the North. 
Thus near the Equator are the coral islands, Christmas, 
Fanning, Washington and Palmyra; and the Hawaiian 
group extends on northwest about twenty degrees be- 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 33 

yond Kauai in several rocks or coral islets, and in the 
other direction from the other extremity, from Hawaii, 
in submarine islands, one of which, discovered by deep- 
sea soundings, is 200 miles from Hawaii, and two miles 
high where the ocean above it is a mile and a half deep. 

The Hawaiian Islands are therefore "the summits 
of a gigantic submarine mountain range, their highest 
mountains rising to nearly 14,000 feet above the ocean, 
and their bases extending downwards to from 15,000 
to 18,000 feet below it. Referred to the bottom of the 
ocean these islands are higher than the Himalayas." 
(Capt. C. E. Dutton.) 

The Hawaiian Islands are situated between the par- 
allels 18 50' and 23 5' north latitude, and between the 
meridians 154 40' and 160 50' west longitude. They 
extend 380 miles from southeast to northwest. The dis- 
tance of their chief seaport, Honolulu, from San Fran- 
cisco is 2,080 miles; from Auckland, 3,800 miles ; from 
Sydney, 4,500 miles; and from Hongkong, 4,800 miles. 

The importance of this group arises quite as much 
from this advantageous location as from its resources. 
Lying at the "cross-roads of the North Pacific," at 
about the centre of the great lines of commerce from 
British Columbia, San Francisco, Nicaragua and Pana- 
ma on the east, to Japan, China, New Zealand and Aus- 
tralia on the west and south, it will largely conduce to 
the naval and commercial supremacy of whatever coun- 
try gains possession of it. 

The Hawaiian group originally consisted of ten 
islands, but in 1894 the Hawaiian government annexed 



134 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

several rocky islets far to the northwest of Kauai. Only 
five of the Hawaiian Islands are of much importance. 
Their aggregate area is 6, 200 square miles — a little less 
than that of the State of Massachusetts. 

Much of this area is unfit for agriculture. Only nar- 
row strips of land near the shores and portions of the 
valleys are cultivated ; but the interior is occupied by 
rugged mountains and profound gorges of the wildest 
description, and is fit only for pasturage. Yet the arable 
portions are very fertile. When their resources are fully 
developed these islands will be able to support a million 
inhabitants and maintain a commerce worth more than 
forty million dollars per annum. 

In the Hawaiian Islands the climate is ten degrees 
cooler than in the same latitude elsewhere. The ocean 
current from the Arctic moderates the heat, so that at 
the sea-level it rarely rises to 90 F., and rarely sinks to 
6o° F. The climate is therefore like a mild summer, 
and, "relatively to human comfort, a perfection of cli- 
mate, the climate of Paradise." During the summer 
months the trade-winds blow from the northeast ; during 
the winter months occasional storms with heavy rains 
blow from the southwest, and these storms sweep on 
with their, rains over the west coast of North America, 
and over the Rocky Mountains, into the Mississippi Val- 
ley. A remarkable difference of climate is noticeable in 
passing from the northeast side of the islands, that are 
exposed to the trade-winds and are cool and rainy, to the 
southwest portions, that are sheltered by high mountains 
and are warm and arid. Thus in Honolulu, on the 




traveller's palm. 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 135 

south side of Oahu, the average rainfall is thirty-eight 
inches, while in Hilo, on the north side of Hawaii, it is 
nearly twelve feet. At higher elevations on the moun- 
tains cooler climates are found, and at the highest sum- 
mits snow falls in winter. 

The Hawaiian Islands are less verdant than the isl- 
ands of the South Pacific, but grander, with loftier moun- 
tains. To one voyaging thither expecting to see islands 
of tropical beauty, with orange-trees growing at the very 
beach and birds of paradise flitting through the forest, 
the first view is rather disappointing. In some parts are 
rather to be seen extensive plains with little verdure, 
high rugged ridges, and vast tracts of lava rock ; but 
on the windward sides of these islands there is as won- 
derful a beauty of verdure as in the islands of the South 
Pacific. The glories of this vegetation are indescribable. 
Its most striking features are its vines, especially the 
palm-like Ieie {freycinetia scandens) that festoons the for- 
ests, its parasites that make strange hanging gardens 
high on the trees, and its ferns, of which there are 300 
species, varying from gem-like forms, exquisite as batter- 
fly wings', to trees thirty feet high, as graceful in figure 
and delicate in pattern as the finest palms. The sides of 
the ravines that are covered with these ferns have the ap- 
pearance of being clothed with a gigantic plumage, in 
comparison with which the most gorgeous feather-man- 
tles of the Hawaiian kings were like beggars' garments. 

The process of upheaval of the Hawaiian Islands, it 
is conjectured, proceeded from northwest to southeast, 
for Kauai, at the northwest extremity, seems to be the 



136 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

oldest island of the group. It has the greatest amount 
of fertile soil, the largest streams of running water, and 
the most verdure, and on this account is called "The 
Garden Island. " It is twenty-five miles long by twenty- 
two wide, has an area of 500 square miles, and rises in 
the centre 5,000 feet high. Its northwest coast, Na 
Pali (the precipices), juts out in rocky cliffs that are 
destitute of both soil and verdure ; but the opposite side 
consists of sloping well-watered plains of great fertility, 
on which are very productive plantations of sugar. On 
the north side is the romantic valley, Waioli (singing- 
water), called also Hanalei (wreath-making), of which 
Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop has written, "It has every 
element of beauty, and for mere loveliness exceeds any- 
thing I have ever seen. " 

Sixty-four miles southeast from this island is Oahu, 
which measures forty-six by twenty-five miles, has. an 
area of 530 square miles, and two mountain ranges, one 
on the west 4,030 feet high, and another at the eastern 
extremity 3,106 feet high. On this island is Honolulu, 
the capital of the group, a city of 25,000 inhabitants. 
It is situated on a sloping plain that is formed of the 
partially decomposed lava cinders, about fourteen feet 
deep, of the extinct volcano, Punchbowl, in the rear. 
Near by is the magnificent inlet, Pearl Harbor, which 
the United States has sought for a naval station. This 
harbor will admit of twenty miles of wharves, and is 
large enough to accommodate at once all the navies of 
the world. Here and at Honololu artesian water has 
been obtained by a hundred wells. On the other islands 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 37 

artesian borings seem more likely to bring up molten 
lava than water ; but here in former ages there have been 
successive elevations and depressions of the land, as is 
shown by fragments of wood that have been brought up 
by well-borers from great depths, and in these geological 
changes a hard stratum has been deposited at great 
depth which retains the water that percolates from rain- 
falls. Water has also been piped from splendid valleys 
in the rear of Honolulu, and thereby this city has been 
made as beautiful with the choicest ornamental vegeta- 
tion of the Tropics as any city in the world. 

Southeast from Oahu, twenty-three miles distant, is 
Molokai, which is forty miles long and seven wide, has 
an area of 190 square miles, and rises to the height 
of 2, 500 feet. This island seems to have had its eastern 
side rent away by some violent convulsion of nature ; so 
that its mountain on this side rises sheer in awful preci- 
pices from the ocean, while on the other side it slopes 
gradually to the shore. From the precipitous side of this 
island juts out the peninsula Kalauwao, where lepers, 
1,000 in number, have been segregated. So fertile is 
this tract of land, and so well are these wretched crea- 
tures provided for by the Hawaiian government and by 
religious associations, that natives in good health have 
been known to endeavor to pass themselves off as lepers 
in order to gain admission to the privileges of this 
asylum. 

About eight miles southeast from Molokai is Maui, 
which measures forty-eight miles long and from eight to 
twenty-five wide and has an area of 620 square miles. This 



138 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

island resembles Tahiti in being of two parts that are 
connected by a low sandy isthmus. A captain of a ship 
once, when approaching this island in the night, mistook 
this isthmus for a channel of water and undertook to 
pass through it, and left the bones of his ship on the 
beach. The western portion of this island, 5,820 feet 
high, is deeply cleft into ridges and valleys, among which 
is the valley Iao, which is well compared for its grandeur 
to Yosemite. This valley expands in the heart of the 
mountain to a breadth of two miles, and is surrounded 
with precipices 4,000 feet in height, which are covered, 
even over their most rocky walls, with an enchanting robe 
of vegetation. 

The eastern portion of this island is occupied by one 
great dome-like mountain, Haleakala, (house of the sun, 
or, the ensnaring of the sun). The latter name is de- 
rived from the tradition of a hero who is said to have 
caught the sun, while it was making its daily circuits in 
only two or three hours, and compelled it to go slower, a 
tradition found also in New Zealand. 

The northern portion of this mountain has been 
deeply grooved by the action of water; for this side 
of the island has received the full dash of the trade-wind 
rains, and the mighty torrents thereby caused have torn 
out the deep volcanic throats of the old crater hills and 
the long empty caverns through which the lava once 
flowed, and thus eroded grand valleys that are now 
clothed with unbroken vegetation. 

The wonder of this mountain is the crater at its sum- 
mit — at an elevation of 10,000 feet above the ocean ; a 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 139 

vast cavern seven miles long, three miles broad and two 
thousand feet deep. This crater has evidently grown 
out of a congeries of craters that have broken into each 
other, as has been the case with Mokuaweoweo on 
Mauna Loa. Its floor consists of the congealed lava 
streams of ancient eruptions, which appear almost as 
fresh and lustrous as though they had flowed but yester- 
day. Within it there are sixteen cones, ranging one 
after the other from southeast to northwest, some of 
them 900 feet in height, covered with cinders and vol- 
canic gravel. Of the appearance of this crater Capt. C. 
E. Dutton has written, ' ' Of all the scenes presented in 
the Hawaiian Islands this is by far the most sublime and 
impressive. Its grandeur and solemnity have often been 
described, but the descriptions have not been over- 
wrought. " 

The largest island of the group is Hawaii, which is 
situated southeast of Maui, and is ninety miles in length, 
seventy in breath and 3,950 square miles in area. It has 
the highest mountains in the Pacific, Loa and Kea, each 
14,000 feet in height ; besides which it has Mt. Hualalai, 
8, 275 feet high, and the Kohala mountain, 5, 505 feet high. 
On this island there are three volcanoes ; and for this 
reason much of its surface is unattractive, with the black 
desolation of lava flows, which nature has yet done little 
to cloth with vegetation. 

These flows are of two kinds: the Pahoehoe, consisting 
of lava which has flowed smoothly and cooled in forms of 
billows, coils and hummocks, and Aa, sometimes called 
clinkers, consisting of lava which has broken up while 



140 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

flowing and been piled in a horror of ruggedness like ice- 
packs in rivers. 

In these flows there are long caverns — the conduits 
through which the lava once flowed from the mountains 
to the ocean. In many places these caverns have been bro- 
ken in from above, forming pitfalls dangerous to unwary- 
travellers and to ranging animals. In one of these caverns 
at an elevation of 6,000 feet (on Mauna Loa) the writer 
once found eighty carcases of goats that had leaped in 
for shelter from storms, or for refuge from dogs, and had 
been unable to leap out. A vaquero once, while chas- 
ing cattle, came suddenly with his horses at full gallop 
on one of these caverns that was hidden by tall ferns, and 
spurred his horse to leap over it, but fell short of the 
opposite brink. His horse was killed by the fall of 
thirty feet on sharp rocks ; and he had one arm broken 
and was unable to climb out. His companions twenty- 
four hours afterwards found him and rescued him. Pit- 
falls of another kind, equally dangerous, are found where 
the lava has flowed through forests and has been mould- 
ed by the trunks of trees into pits of their own shape and 
size. The early missionaries used the name of these pits, 
meke, in rendering the word hell ; and this name, with its 
suggestion of volcanic fire, proved quite expressive. 

In some parts of this island these lava-flows have de- 
composed into very fertile soil and formed, in place of 
their former desolation, most attractive tropical forests. 
Such a region is Hilo, than which hardly a more inviting 
place can be found, with its beautiful bay, its cascades 
pouring into the ocean, its island of cocoanut, its town 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 141 

embowered in tropical foliage, and its mountains crowned 
with shining snows. 

On the islands that have been particularly mentioned 
sugar plantations and extensive live-stock ranches have 
been established ; a good beginning also has been made 
in the culture of coffee, rice, fibre-bearing plants, ba- 
nanas, pineapples, and other tropical fruits, and immense 
tracts are still uncultivated. On Hawaii alone seventy- 
thousand acres of land, untouched as yet by the planter, 
are finely adapted to the culture of coffee and almost all 
tropical fruits. The soil is excellent, except on the 
steep declivities, where the rains have leached out its 
best ingredients and left a stiff clay heavily impregnated 
with iron. Such lava rocks as in Europe are ground up 
and used as ferilizers have here almost wholly formed the 
soil, and on the low lands, where they are mingled with 
decayed vegetable matter or ocean sand, constitute a soil 
of extraordinary fertility. On such land at Makaweli, 
Kauai, and Ewa, Oahu, sugar-cane has yielded from five 
to nine tons of sugar per acre. 

The volcanoes of Hawaii are Kilauea, Mauna Loa, 
and Hualalai, and are of surpassing interest to tourists 
and scientists. Here is an opportunity to behold the 
operations of that power which under cosmic influences, 
it is supposed, reared the islands, the continents, and 
the mountain ranges of our world, having raged with 
devouring fire over all the face of nature. Here at al- 
most all times one may look into nature's crucible and 
imagine the formation of the crude fabric from which 
by flood and fire and glacial action have been developed 



142 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

all the minerals and metals of earth, and by forces of 
life the varied and beautiful forms of the vegetable and 
animal kingdoms. 

Kilauea is situated at an elevation of 4,000 feet, 
on the slopes of Mauna Loa, about 10,000 feet below 
its summit. It is a vast pit sunk into the plain, and 
measures seven and a half miles in circumference. The 
centre of its activity is at its southeastern extremity, 
where there has long been a lake of fire varying from 
a thousand feet to half a mile in diameter. Frequent- 
ly this lake has overflowed the black floor of the crater, 
and sometimes its fiery torrents have burst through the 
surrounding walls and poured down from the slope of 
the mountain to the ocean. Twice within recent years 
its fires have subsided and its lava sunk away, leaving a 
pit five hundred feet deep. It is supposed that at these 
times the down-plunge has been caused by outbreaks and 
outflows below the level of the ocean. After a few weeks 
or months the fires have always returned, beginning at 
first feebly, and waxing more and more violent. 

This volcano has had successive cycles of activity. 
The process has been, first, a rising of the lake with the 
formation of a congealed crust over its surface swelling 
upward in the form of a mound ; then an eruption, 
through this mound, of fountains of fire playing to the 
height of from fifteen to one hundred feet ; then a sub- 
sidence, and sometimes at last an extinction of the 
fires. Then the same process has been repeated, and 
thus continually. With each cycle the floor of the 
crater has risen higher. In 1830- it was 1,500 feet be- 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 143 

low the rim of the crater; now it is only 350 feet below 
the rim. 

A hotel has been built near this crater where tour- 
ists are very comfortably accommodated, and guides 
are furnished who lead to the very brink of the fiery 
lake. It is generally safe to approach near enough to 
dip up the molten lava ; but extreme caution is neces- 
sary, as sometimes the banks give way or sudden out- 
bursts of fire occur. The missionary Dr. G. P. Judd 
once descended into a pit of this crater and was en- 
gaged in dipping up the lava when the fiery flood sud- 
denly rose and cut off his retreat. A native hurried at 
his call and drew him out, and immediately the pit 
was filled with molten lava and began to throw up foun- 
tains of fire. 

The volcano of Mauna Loa is at the summit of the 
mountain of that name, at an elevation of 14,000 feet 
above the ocean, in the crater Mokuaweoweo, a crater 
which measures 19,000 by 9,000 feet and about 800 feet 
in depth. This mountain, though about a hundred feet 
lower than Kea, is the grander mountain, being vastly 
broader. As referred to its base at the bottom of the 
ocean it is 1 9, 000 feet in height. The upper portion, from 
the summit to four miles down its sides, is a region of 
utter desolation, without a vestige of vegetation even of 
moss or lichen ; a frightful waste of congealed streams, 
cataracts, and tufa cones of lava. But during the winter 
season its black horrors are covered with a beautiful 
mantle of snow. 

The eruptions of this volcano generally begin without 



144 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

any premonition of earthquakes or subterranean noises, 
" as quietly as the moon rises." A light is first seen on 
the summit of the mountain, and this increases till it 
turns night to day to a distance of forty miles. Then 
fires burst forth lower down from the side of the moun- 
tain, and play like a fountain to a height of from 500 to 
1,000 feet ; and a river of lava pours down the moun- 
tain side, spreading from half a mile to two miles in 
breadth and twenty or thirty miles in length, overwhelm- 
ing forests and villages, and sometimes reaching the 
ocean. Such a stream in 1855 broke out on this moun- 
tain at an elevation of 12,000 feet and flowed for fifteen 
months, reaching within eight miles of the beautiful town 
of Hilo, when the eruption ceased and the town escaped. 
Again, in 1880, a fiery stream from a point on this moun- 
tain 11, 100 feet above the ocean flowed nine months, and 
reached within three quarters of a mile of Hilo. Real 
estate in Hilo for the time being fell in value, and the 
inhabitants prepared to flee with their movable property, 
when the flowing of the lava ceased. 

The magnificence of these volcanic displays is inde- 
scribable. Rev. T. Coan visited an eruption on this 
mountain in 1852 and spent a night beside it, and wrote 
that no tongue, no pen, no pencil could portray the beau- 
ty, the grandeur, the terrible sublimity of the scenes he 
witnessed on that memorable night. Mrs. Isabella Bird 
Bishop thus described an eruption she saw at the sum- 
mit : "A perfect fountain of pure yellow fire was regu- 
larly playing in several united jets, throwing up its glori- 
ous incandescence to a height of from 150 to $00 feet. 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 45 

You cannot imagine such a beautiful sight. The sunset 
gold was not purer than the living fire. Suddenly a 
change occurred. The jets, which for long had been 
playing at a height of 300 feet, became quite low, and 
for a few seconds appeared as cones of fire wallowing in 
a sea of light ; then with a roar, like the ^ound of gath- 
ering waters, nearly the whole surface of the lake rose 
three times, with its whole radiant mass in one glorious 
upward burst, to a height of 600 feet, while the earth 
trembled and the moon and stars withdrew abashed into 
far-off space. " 

This volcano, considered as to the size of its moun- 
tain, the noblest of the Pacific, as to the height of the 
columns of fire it lifts upward, 14,000 feet, as to the 
power of its eruptions, throwing fountains from 100 to 
1,000 feet in height, and as to the amount of lava poured 
forth, ejecting at one eruption as much as Vesuvius has 
thrown forth in 2,000 years, is the grandest volcano in 
the world. 

The volcano of Hualalai has had only one eruption 
in historical time, which occurred in 1801, and over- 
whelmed an extensive plain and fish-pond and poured 
into the ocean. 

It would be interesting to consider the current theo- 
ries respecting the causes of these volcanic phenomena 
and the laws of their action, if it were compatible with 
the plan of this sketch. Suffice it to say that the pre- 
vailing opinions, as set forth by geologists, are that the 
internal heat of the earth may be ascribed to the crush- 
ing of rocks in the contraction of the earth and in its 



146 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

changes, like those of ocean tides under lunar and solar 
influences; and that the eruptions of lava may be as- 
cribed to the force of vapors formed by the percolation 
of water from rain or from the ocean, a percolation that 
is sometimes very local and causes very local eruptions, 
as those of Mauna Loa while Kilauea is quiet, and those 
through the mountain rim of Mokuaweoweo while the 
crater eight hundred feet below does not fill up. It is 
profoundly interesting to observe that the lines of direc- 
tion of this volcanic action, like those of mountain chains 
and ocean coasts throughout the world, have been from 
northwest to southeast, or at right angles to this line — 
the former line tangential to the Polar Circle and having 
the same angle to the Equator as the Ecliptic — suggest- 
ing that cosmic forces have directed the cleavage through 
which volcanic discharges have burst forth ; also to note 
that the distances apart of centres of volcanic action, as 
of islands and mountains elsewhere in the world, have 
generally been twenty miles or multiples of twenty, sug- 
gesting that the crust of the earth above volcanic fires is 
twenty miles in thickness ; also to note the correspond- 
ence in time of volcanic action here with similar action 
in other parts of the world. 

Looking at these volcanic phenomena and also at the 
marvellous struggle life is everywhere making to gain a 
foothold in its rocky desolation and to overcome it, 
sometimes sending forward its heralds in the form of 
hardy plants into lava streams only a few weeks after 
they have cooled, we are prepared to consider the higher 
phenomena of the condition of the people of the Ha- 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 47 

waiian Islands, their primitive paganism, and the strug' 
gle that has been made to introduce Christianity among 
them, and thereby to overcome their barbarism and 
transform them into a civilized people. 

The ancient condition of these islanders was like that 
of the natives of the South Pacific, to whose race they 
belonged. Many ages ago a company of Polynesians, 
driven by storms, drew near in canoes to these islands, 
and joyfully beheld their beautiful mountains, and finally 
landed, and gained a livelihood from the spontaneous 
productions of their forests and the fish of their seas. In 
remembrance of their former home, Savaii, they named 
the largest island of this group Hawaii. Through un- 
counted ages the descendants of this company roamed 
over this little oceanic world, knowing of no land beyond 
the blue horizon of the surrounding waters but Tahiti, 
which their most daring navigators sometimes visited. 

The primitive condition of this people has been well 
described by the apostle Paul in his account of the an- 
cient heathen world, which, because of its aversion to 
the knowledge of the true God, had been given over to 
the most senseless idolatry and the most revolting im- 
morality. The Hawaiians worshipped three chief gods, 
Kaneloa, Ku and Lono, and besides these a multitude 
of lesser gods and demi-gods and spirits of their ances- 
tors, with whom they supposed the whole earth, sky and 
sea to swarm. These gods, they supposed, were induced 
by human sacrifices to enter their idols. They also sup- 
posed that they entered plants and animals. A native 
who inadvertently stepped on a lizard would run scream- 



148 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

ing with terror, not because he was afraid of the little 
reptile, but because he was horrified at having enraged a 
god that he supposed had entered into it. 

To these gods they ascribed evil passions like their 
own. Says Rev. S. E. Bishop : ' ' The Hawaiian pan- 
theon was an embodied diabolism. A loathsome filthi- 
ness is not mere incident, but forms the groundwork of 
character, not merely of the great hog-god Kamapuaa. 
but even of the more humanlike Ku and Kane of the 
chief trinity. " 

As might be supposed, the worship of such gods was 
most demoralizing, oppressive and distressing. Under 
it, to be cruel, false, lewd, licentious, vile and most des- 
picable was to be godlike ; and the rites of worship, the 
dances, the sacrifices, and all the orgies were indescriba- 
ble expressions of evil passions. 

The priests (the kahunas) brought all this paganism 
with terrific power into the every-day life of the natives. 
They did this first by the tabu system, as they alleged 
that the presence of the gods, or the necessity of propi- 
tiating their favor, made certain articles, places and 
times tabu — that is, forbidden for secular use. This sys- 
tem rested with the greatest weight upon the women, 
who by it were forbidden to eat many kinds of fish and 
fruit, or to eat with the men, and in many other ways 
painfully restricted — a cunning device whereby the ' ' lords 
of creation " monopolized whatever was choicest in the 
productions of the islands. 

The priests constantly applied this paganism also by 
the practice of sorcery. Whenever any one became sen- 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 149 

ously ill they extorted a large price to exorcise the evil 
spirit, which they declared was the sole cause of the ill- 
ness. Sometimes they practiced sorcery to destroy their 
enemies. Like the natives of Southern Polynesia and 
Australia, they endeavored to obtain something from their 
victims — remnants of their food, portions of their clothing, 
parings of their nails, or collections of their saliva — by 
which to send demons for their destruction. For this 
reason the chiefs kept trusty attendants with spit-boxes 
who should prevent any exuviae of their persons from 
coming into the possession of their enemies. The vic- 
tims of the priests died either from terror, or from poi- 
son, or from violence. And so it came to pass that by 
threats of sorcery the priests, as instruments of the chiefs, 
ruled the people with despotic power and kept them in 
a constant terror. Sometimes the natives died from this 
terror. This was once shown in a striking way when a 
priest informed a white man that he was about to pray 
him to death, and the white man replied that he too 
could pray. The priest, supposing that the white man 
was practising black arts against him, sank into despond- 
ency and despair and finally died. 

The priests made their severest requisitions on great 
public occasions, and then not only imposed rigorous 
tabus, but also required human sacrifices. When war 
was to be declared, a temple dedicated, an idol made, a 
new house built for a chief, a new canoe launched, or 
when a chief was seriously sick or died, human sacrifices 
were offered. Then for fear of being sought by the 
executioner the natives fled to the mountains and lay 



150 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

hid till the danger had passed. The victims were secret- 
ly assassinated by a blow with a club from behind, and 
were then laid before the idol on the heiau to putrefy in 
the sun. The heiau was an oblong platform of stones, 
sometimes over 200 feet long, 100 feet wide, and from 
eight to twenty feet high, on which within a high sur- 
rounding wall was a paved court for idol-worship. (W. 
D. Alexander's " History of the Hawaiian People.") 

The paganism of the Hawaiians took on its worst 
aspects at the funerals of their chiefs. Then besides 
making human sacrifices they utterly abandoned them- 
selves to sensuality and violence. They ' ' threw off their 
clothing and the restraints of decency, filled the air with 
loud and long-continued wailings and the noise of shell- 
trumpets, knocked out their front teeth, lacerated their 
bodies, set fire to houses, danced in a state of nudity, 
and appeared more like demons than human beings." 

Although, as might be supposed, the influence of 
this paganism was utterly brutalizing, the Hawaiians did 
not become as degraded and inhuman as many of the 
tribes in the South Pacific ; nor did they, like those 
southern tribes, practice widow-murder, patricide and 
cannibalism. Patricide is said to have once been com- 
mon in Hawaii, but was discontinued in consequence 
of a remark of an old man when his son was about to 
throw him over a precipice to escape the trouble of 
caring for him. The old man said, ' ' If you throw me 
over this precipice your son will throw you over it 
when you become old." Startled by this warning the 
son spared the old man ; and others hearing of the inci- 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 151 

dent desisted from patricide. But in Hawaii immoral- 
ity, war and infanticide were as prevalent as in the 
South Pacific. Probably one-third of the children were 
put to death. One woman once said to a missionary, 
"I have had thirteen children, and I have buried them 
all alive. Oh that you had come sooner to teach me 
better I" The missionaries once rescued a boy by the 
name of Kuaea from a grave in which he had been 
placed to be buried alive ; and he grew up in their care 
to become the most popular preacher in Hawaii. 

To this people in their primitive degradation the ad- 
vent of white men from civilized countries was like the 
coming of beings from another planet. The first of 
these visitors was the Spanish navigator, Juan Gaetano, 
who discovered part of this group in 1555 but in jeal- 
ousy of other countries concealed the discovery. His 
ancient chart, marking the situation ten degrees too far 
east, has been found in the Spanish archives. Little is 
known of his coming, so long ago, but more is known 
of that of the English navigator, Capt. James Cook, who 
made this group known to the world. He had been 
sent to the Pacific to observe the transit of Venus from 
Tahiti, and in a subsequent voyage went north to search 
for a passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and on the 
1 8th of January, 1778, discovered the island of Kauai, 
and afterwards the other Hawaiian islands. 

When he landed on Kauai all the multitude of 
natives who had gathered to see the strange phenomena 
of his ships fell flat on the earth, and remained so until 
he made signs to them to rise. They took him for their 



152 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

god Lono, who they supposed had left the islands and 
was now returning ; and the ships they took for floating 
islands covered with trees. They called him and his 
crew Haolis (white hogs) ; and this was ever afterwards 
their name for foreigners. They meant no disrespect, 
but gave this name because the hog was their largest 
animal, and it was their custom to give such names to 
each other ; as for instance the common name Puaahiva 
(beloved hog). Cook and his crew did not belie the 
name given them, but proved it to be more appropriate 
than that of gods. 

Although at first Cook sought to restrain his men, 
because of the terrible effect of their vices at Tahiti, his 
visits degenerated into mere sensual carousals, with con- 
nivance at the heathenism of the natives and harsh 
returns for their generous hospitality. On landing he 
was induced to ascend a heiau and there receive the 
worship of the priests, who prostrated themselves before 
him with long prayers and offerings of baked hogs. 
Taking advantage of this superstitious reverence for 
himself he exacted from them immense supplies of food 
and took the sacred fence of their temple for fuel. The 
king gave him six splendid feather cloaks, which were 
worth in the labor of their construction over a million 
dollars. They were made of the very beautiful golden- 
yellow feathers of a rare bird, the Oo (Moho nobilis), 
which has under each of its wings two of these feath- 
ers. In return for these gifts he gave the king a linen 
shirt and a cutlass. 

Finally, presuming on the dread the natives had of 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 153 

him as a god, Cook endeavored to take their king aboard 
his vessel, to compel him to restore a boat that had been 
stolen and broken up for its nails. He ordered his offi- 
cers meanwhile to allow no canoes to enter the harbor, 
and they fired on and killed a chief who, in ignorance of 
this order, was crossing the harbor in a canoe. When 
the news of this murder came to the attendants of the 
king they began to throw stones at Cook, and he fired 
upon them. A chief then seized him from behind, and 
he called for help ; whereupon the chief exclaimed, "He 
cries; he is not a god," and killed him. The sailors 
then fled to their boats and pulling off a little distance 
from the shore fired volleys of musketry upon the na- 
tives, and the ships fired cannon shot upon them. The 
natives, seeing the smoke of the firearms, hung up wet 
mats to protect themselves, till seventeen of their num- 
ber had been shot, and then fled to the mountains. 
Thus Cook paid with his life for his complicity with the 
idolatry of the natives. It was a rare opportunity he 
had enjoyed of giving to the wondering natives their first 
knowledge of civilization ; but his coming among them 
was rather like the springing of a wolf into a sheep-fold 
to slay some of the flock and be slain himself. 

After this disastrous termination of Cook's visit no 
ships went to the Hawaiian Islands for seven years, so 
bad a reputation had their people acquired for barbarism. 
At length the fur-trade with the northwest coast of Amer- 
ica began, and vessels on their way from Nootka Sound 
to China put in to the island for supplies. After this 
trade declined that in sandal wood commenced, and 



!54 THEr ISLANDS OF THET PACIFIC. 

continued till 1826. This fragrant wood was taken to 
China and sold at ten dollars perpicul of 133 J- pounds 
for incense in the temples. This trade brought great 
wealth to the Hawaiian chiefs, and enabled them to pur- 
chase vessels, guns, liquors, and Chinese goods. Thus 
Kamehameha I. was able to pay for one vessel, the 
Niu, $51,750, and Liholiho for the yacht Cleopatra 
$80,000, also for the brig Thaddeus $40,000, for a small 
schooner $16,000, and for ammunition $11,000; and in 
1826 the Hawaiian government undertook to pay off its 
debts of $500,000 chiefly with sandal wood. But the 
work of procuring this wood from the mountains was a 
terrible drudgery to the common people, who carried it 
on their shoulders or dragged it on the ground. After 
this trade ended the whale-oil business began ; and 
whale-ships went to the Hawaiian Islands for supplies 
and to spend the winters. When in later times, about 
the year i860, the whaling business declined, new agri- 
cultural enterprises were started, and sugar, rice and 
other tropical productions brought great wealth to the 
islands. 

The influence of the many adventurers who visited 
the islands in these various enterprises was most deplor- 
able. While some of them, like the British Capt. Van- 
couver, exhorted the natives to refrain from war, and 
foretold the future coming of missionaries, others were 
little better than the savages themselves, and committed 
most cruel outrages. Such an outrage was the massacre 
perpetrated by Capt. Metcalf because a native of Mauri 
had stolen one of his boats and broken it up for the 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 55 

nails. He caused the natives, as they came off in canoes 
for trade, to gather near the sides of his vessel, in the 
range of his guns, and then fired broadsides of cannon 
and muskets upon them, killing a hundred of them and 
wounding many more. About two weeks after his 
departure his son, a lad eighteen years old, arrived at 
the same place and was suddenly attacked by the na- 
tives, and with all but two of his men killed ; and his 
vessel was dragged up on the beach. 

Some of these foreigners provided the natives with 
firearms, and cooperated with them in the wars which 
raged after the death of Kalaniopuu, who was the king 
of Hawaii at the arrival of Capt. Cook. A strife then 
arose among the chiefs for the rule of Hawaii ; and from 
that time, in 1792, like the storms that in winter blow 
over this group, wars raged till 1796. First, Kamehame- 
ha, a chief of the district of Kona, Hawaii, contended 
against the chief of the adjoining district. The elements 
of nature seemed to come to his aid, for a cloud of vol- 
canic cinders from Kilauea destroyed a portion of the 
army of his enemies and the natives concluded that the 
gods were aiding him. Then sixteen foreigners joined 
his army, and mingled the thunders of their muskets 
and cannon with the savage yells of his barbaric warriors 
and made him master of Hawaii. The storm of war 
then swept over to Maui and like a cloud-burst raged 
awhile in the beautiful valley of Iao ; the king of Maui 
was defeated and the streams of that valley choked with 
the bodies of the slain. Not long after this a naval bat- 
tle of hundreds of canoes and several schooners was 



156 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

fought between Hawaii and Maui, and again Kameha- 
meha was victorious. The war then passed on to Oahu, 
and the army of that island was swept up the valley of 
Nuuanu and over the frightful precipices of the Pali. 
Finally, in 18 10, the king of Kauai quietly submitted, 
and Kamehameha became monarch of the whole group. 

Sadder than the carnage that was caused by these 
wars, and the tragic deaths of Capt. Cook and other voy- 
agers, was the frightfully immoral influence of these 
sensual foreigners, the distillation by them of ardent 
spirits, and the introduction by them of diseases that 
destroyed the natives. Their coming was like an inva- 
sion of wild animals from the continents to ravage, 
trample and devour. It has been well remarked that, 
" while there have been no serpents or tigers in these 
islands, there have been human brutes, worse than ser- 
pents and tigers, that have greatly destroyed the people. " 
Capt. Cook estimated the population at the time of his 
coming at 400,000; in 1832 it was only 130,000; and 
now, in 1895, the number of native Hawaiians is only 
33,000. The dark side of the history of the Hawaiian 
Islands is the record of the influence of these evil classes 
of foreigners, and their opposition to Christian civiliza- 
tion. 

But the work of foreigners in aiding Kamehameha to 
conquer the islands unintentionally on their part pre- 
pared the way for the enterprise of Christian missions. 
The establishment of one government over all the group 
and the cessation of inter-island warfare paved the way 
for the gospel of peace. 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. I $7 

The occasion of the introduction of Christianity into 
the Hawaiian Islands was the arrival in the United States 
of several Hawaiian boys who had been employed as 
seamen on ships. One of these boys was found one 
morning by Rev. Edwin Dwight weeping on the steps of 
a Yale College building, and by him kindly cared for, 
and at length, at the suggestion of Mr. Samuel Mills, one 
of the founders of the American Board of Missions, sent 
with other Hawaiian boys to a school for foreign children 
at Cornwall, Conn. In this school most of these boys 
embraced Christianity; and then they entreated that 
Christian teachers should be sent to instruct their be- 
nighted countrymen. Their request excited great inter- 
est in the churches of New England and moved the 
American Board of Missions to extend their enterprises 
to the Hawaiian Islands, and finally, on the 23d of Octo- 
ber, 1819, a little over forty years after the discovery of 
Hawaii by Capt. Cook and twenty-three years after the 
beginning of the London Mission to the South Pacific, 
the first company of missionaries for the Hawaiian Isl- 
ands embarked at Boston on the brig Thaddeus with 
Capt. Blanchard. 

This company consisted of the ordained ministers, 
Hiram Bingham and Asa Thurston, Samuel Whitney — 
who left Yale College in his sophomore year to engage 
in this mission and was afterwards ordained at the Isl- 
ands — Samuel Ruggles, a teacher, Dr. Thomas Holman, 
Elisha Loomis, a printer, and Daniel Chamberlain, a 
farmer. All these were married men ; and the farmer 
took with him his five children. 



158 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

From a worldly point of view the enterprise on which 
these missionaries then entered was not inviting. To go 
with their tender wives and children from the peace and 
order and sweet amenities of civilization to dwell among 
the wild, half-clothed savages of Hawaii was almost like 
going into infernal regions. But the faith and Christian 
devotion with which they went forth were rewarded 
beyond their expectations ; for unknown to them, before 
their arrival at the islands, idolatry was voluntarily 
abandoned by the natives. 

And here we have another beautiful illustration of the 
far-reaching influence of the mission work at Tahiti. 
The explanation of this overthrow of idolatry is found in 
the influence of that mission work. Tidings had come 
to Hawaii of the downfall of idolatry in Tahiti ; and 
Kamehameha had made inquiries of sea-captains about 
the astonishing event and about the nature of Christian- 
ity. The news was very pleasing to the royal women of 
Hawaii, who felt that the tabu system was an intolerable 
burden. At the time of the death of Kamehameha I. 
some of these women were liable to death, one for having 
eaten bananas, and others fish, contrary to the tabu ; 
and two of them, Keopuolani and Kaahumanu, wives of 
Kamehameha, had secretly resolved to do away with the 
tabu. With this view, in the pompous ceremony of the 
investiture of Liholiho, Kamehameha II., with the 
sovereignty, Kaahumanu, after proclaiming him king, 
publicly exhorted him to abandon the tabu system. On 
the evening of the same day Keopuolani, the mother of 
Liholiho, broke over the tabu by eating with Kauikeaouli, 




Royal Palms at Honolulu. 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 159 

the younger brother ; and a few weeks afterwards Kaahu- 
manu succeeded in persuading the young king to disre- 
gard the tabu by publicly sitting down to eat at a feast 
with women. As he did so the people looked on in 
consternation, expecting to see a manifestation of the 
wrath of their gods, and when they saw that he contin- 
ued unharmed exclaimed, "The tabus are abolished! 
The idols are a lie I" Strange to say, the high priest, 
Hewahewa, was the first to apply a torch to the temples. 
The natives then with a sort of frenzy went everywhere 
destroying images and sanctuaries of their paganism even 
to the most distant islands. 

A brief stand for idolatry was made by a chief by the 
name of Kekuaokalani (the god of heaven), with a mul- 
titude of natives, and a battle was fought at Kuamoo, 
Ha waii, but this chief was killed by a musket-ball fired 
from a boat, and his fighting wife beside him fell, and 
his army was vanquished. Then by royal proclamation 
idolatry was for ever forbidden in the Hawaiian Islands. 
So strictly was this law observed that when, in 1826, 
Roman-catholic priests arrived they gained little influ- 
ence over the people, and they were expelled in 1831 by 
the regent queen, Kaahumanu, on account of their wor- 
ship of images. 

The first news, therefore, that came to the missiona- 
ries on their arrival on March 30, 1820, was that the 
warrior king, Kamehameha, was dead, and that the idols 
had been destroyed. It had taken fifteen years of ardu- 
ous, perilous work to abolish idolatry in the Society 
Islands, but here, by the providence of God, it was abol- 



!6o THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

ished before the missionaries arrived. They felt that 
God had gone before them preparing the way for his 
work. 

But to their great surprise they now found difficulty 
in even gaining permission to land and reside in the 
islands. The degraded foreigners who were dwelling in 
sensuality among the natives viewed with regret the 
coming of teachers of a holy religion, and hastened to 
warn the king that the new-comers would forbid his 
polygamy and make war upon him and wrest away his 
kingdom. It was replied that the missionaries would 
not have brought their wives and tender children if they 
had come for war ; and in this way the king was barely 
persuaded to allow them to land for one year on trial. 

It is hard to realize now what it was for these mis- 
sionaries to take up their residence among the natives. 
When the ladies of their company first saw the natives 
they exclaimed, "Can these be human beings? Are 
they not devils rather ?" And some of them went below 
into the cabin of their vessel and wept. The owner of a 
trading vessel, on seeing them land, exclaimed, "These 
ladies cannot remain here. They will all return to the 
United States in less than a year. " And with kind solic- 
itude for their welfare he gave orders that his vessels 
should give them free passage to the United States when- 
ever they should apply. The night before they landed 
there had been a drunken carousal on shore, and the 
next morning the rocks along the beach were covered 
with the nude forms of intoxicated natives. 

Sometimes there was something ludicrous, as well as 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 161 

revolting, in the appearance of the natives, especially 
when they endeavored to combine with their own bar- 
baric style the fashions of civilized people. Not long 
after the arrival of the missionaries there was a celebra- 
tion of the accession of Liholiho to the sovereignty. On 
this occasion the wives of the king were borne in a pro- 
cession with great pomp. The head queen, Kamamalu, 
was seated in a whaleboat fastened to a platform of spars 
and borne on the shoulders of seventy men. The boat 
and platform were covered with fine broadcloth, relieved 
by richly-colored native cloth. The bearers marched in 
a solid phalanx, the outer ranks of which wore scarlet 
and yellow feather cloaks and superb helmets of the same 
material. The queen wore a scarlet silk mantle and a 
coronet of feathers, and was screened from the sun by a 
huge umbrella of scarlet damask, supported by a chief 
wearing a scarlet malo and a tall feather helmet. On 
one quarter of the boat stood the chief Naihe, and on 
the other the chief Kalaimoku, each similarly clad and 
holding a scarlet kahili, or plumed staff of state, thirty 
feet in height. The other wives of the king appeared in 
similar pomp, and in lieu of a boat were mounted upon 
double canoes. The dress of the queen-dowager was 
seventy-two yards of orange and scarlet kerseymere, 
which was wrapped around her waist until her arms were 
sustained by it in a horizontal position, and the remain- 
der was formed into a train supported by her attend- 
ants. Meanwhile the king and his suite, nearly naked 
and intoxicated, rode from place to place on horses 
without saddles, followed on the run by a shabby escort 



Y&2 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

of fifty or sixty men. Eighty dogs were cooked for the 
feast of this celebration. 

Hardly had the year in which the missionaries had 
been allowed to remain on probation expired when the 
vile foreigners renewed their opposition. They now 
informed the king that in the Society Islands mission- 
aries had taken away the lands of the natives, and that 
these American missionaries were offensive to the king 
of Britain, and that if he did not send them away the 
British monarch would give him proof of his anger. 
But this opposition was overcome in a providential way. 
Thirty years previous the British government had prom- 
ised to give Kamehameha a vessel on account of his 
services in rescuing vessels and seamen from the savages, 
and now it occurred to that government to fulfil this 
promise, and for this purpose a vessel was sent from New 
South Wales to Hawaii. This vessel, with another con- 
voying it, touched on its way at Tahiti, and there took 
on board English missionaries and Tahitian Christians, 
who engaged passage by the convoying vessel to the 
Marquesas Islands. Just at this time, when the foreign- 
ers were renewing their opposition, these vessels arrived 
at Honolulu. The English gentlemen at once assured 
the king of the friendship of the British monarch, and 
the Tahitians informed him of the good work done by 
missionaries in their islands, and thereby effectually 
counteracted the slanders of the foreigners. 

But this opposition was often afterwards renewed, as 
in 1825 and 1826, when laws had been enacted against 
intemperance and prostitution, and seamen several times 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. ^3 

assaulted the missionaries, and once fired cannon on 
one of their houses, in order to compel them to use 
their influence for the abrogation of these laws. Strange 
to say, this opposition was led by the British Consul, 
Richard Charlton. 

In 1826 Commodore Thomas Ap Jones arrived, 
and at the request of the missionaries made a public 
examination of these matters. He afterwards wrote of 
the meeting that was then held, "I own I trembled for 
the cause of Christianity and for the poor benighted 
islanders when I saw on one hand the British consul, 
backed by the most wealthy and hitherto influential 
foreign residents and shipmasters in formidable array, 
and prepared, as I supposed, to testify against some 
half dozen meek and humble servants of the Lord, calmly 
seated on the other, ready and even anxious to be tried 
by their bitterest enemies. But what was the result of 
this portentous meeting ? The most perfect, full, com- 
plete, and triumphant victory for the missionaries that 
could have been asked by their most devoted friends. " 
The influence of unprincipled whites in the subsequent 
history of the islands has been the chief cause of the 
demoralization of the churches, the corruption of civil 
government, and the recent fall of the Hawaiian mon- 
archy. 

From the first inception of this mission several cir- 
cumstances contributed to its success. That of the 
voluntary abolition of idolatry by the natives has been 
mentioned. Besides this was the wonder with which 
the natives regarded the art of reading and their conse- 



164 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

quent zeal to read whatever was published by the mis* 
sionaries. With the aid of the English missionary, 
Rev. William Ellis, who came from Tahiti, the language 
was quickly reduced to writing. Reading was easily 
taught, as only thirteen letters were necessary to spell 
the vernacular; and since each syllable ended with a 
vowel the natives needed little more than to learn the 
alphabet to be able to read. The king insisted on being 
the first pupil, and after he had learned to read gave 
command that every one in his kingdom should attend 
the mission schools. Those who learned to read now 
became teachers to instruct others, and went everywhere 
forming schools. In a few years thirty thousand of the 
people were able to read and write. Savage sports were 
then forgotten in the eagerness of the people to read 
whatever was published by the missionaries. With great 
zeal the missionaries now hastened to prepare school- 
books, tracts, and translations of the Bible. In the year 
1832 the translation of the New Testament was com- 
pleted, and in 1839 that of the whole Bible. In a few 
years twenty thousand copies of the Bible and fifty 
thousand of the New Testament, and also a great quan- 
tity of tracts and school-books, were distributed. Sixty- 
five million pages were sent forth, ' ' which were to the 
natives like leaves from the tree of life. " 

The missionaries gained a great advantage also by 
the favor and cooperation of the surviving wives of Ka- 
mehameha I. and of several high chiefs who were the 
rulers of the islands. The high rank of these helpers is 
especially noticeable. One of them, Keopuolani (the 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 65 

gathering of the clouds of heaven), was the grand- 
daughter of the king who received Capt. Cook, the chief 
queen of Kamehameha I., and the mother of the kings 
Kamehameha II. and Kamehameha III. So sacred was 
her person regarded that whenever she walked abroad 
all who saw her prostrated themselves to the earth. 
After Kamehameha's death she was married to Hoapili, 
governor of Maui. She was one of the first converts and 
displayed excellent Christian character, and earnestly 
labored for the schools and churches until her death on 
September 16, 1823. 

The first convert on Oahu was the Regent Queen 
Kaahumanu (feather mantle), who had been the favorite 
wife of Kamehameha I., and who after his death mar- 
ried Kamualii, the former king of Kauai and afterwards 
governor of Oahu. She was so changed from a haughty, 
cruel and besotted savage that the natives spoke of her 
as the "new Kaahumanu." During her last illness a re- 
inforcement of nineteen missionaries arrived and she 
received them with tears of joy. It was remarked at her 
death, June 5, 1832, that "the mission lost in her a 
mother, a judicious counsellor, and a firm supporter; 
but heaven received a soul cleansed by the blood of 
Christ from the foulest stains of heathenism, infanticide, 
and abominable pollution." 

Another distinguished assistant of the missionaries 
was Kaakini, the brother of Kaahumanu. At the com- 
ing of the missionaries he was the governor of Hawaii, 
and afterwards the governor of Oahu. This chief built 
the first church at Kailua, and in later times vigorously 



1 66 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

defended the missionaries against the corrupt foreign- 
ers. 

Quite as notable was Kapiolani (the captive of 
heaven), who was descended from a line of kings and was 
the wife of Naihe, the national orator. In December, 
1824, she determined to break the spell of the belief in 
Pele, the dread goddess of the volcano. For this pur- 
pose she made a long journey to Kilauea. Her husband 
and a multitude of friends besought her not to provoke 
the wrath of the supposed goddess ; and a priestess met 
her at the brink of the crater and predicted her death if 
she persisted in her course. But she boldly descended 
into the volcano and walked to the brink of the burning 
lake, then half a mile in breadth, and there defiantly ate 
the berries consecrated to the goddess and threw stones 
into the fountains of fire. As she did this she exclaimed, 
"Jehovah is my God. He kindled these fires. I fear 
not Pele." She then knelt in prayer to the true God and 
united with her attendants in singing a Christian hymn. 
Rev. C. Forbes said at her death, in 1841 : "This nation 
has lost one of its brightest ornaments. She was con- 
fessedly the most decided Christian, the most civilized in 
her manners, and the most thoroughly read in the Bible 
of all the chiefs this nation ever had ; and it is saying no 
more than truth to assert that her equal in these respects 
is not left in the nation. The hand of God is to be seen 
in the consistent Christian life for twenty years of this 
child of a degraded paganism." 

Another important helper was Kinau, daughter of 
Kamehameha I., wife of Kekuanoa, who in later times 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 167 

was governor of Oahu, and mother of the kings Kameha- 
meha IV. and Kamehameha V. At the death of Kaa- 
humanu she became regent during the minority of Kame- 
hameha III., and afterwards premier. There was a 
critical time in Hawaiian history when Kauikeaouli 
(Kamehameha III.) assumed the sovereignty, and it was 
feared he would appoint as his premier one of his disso- 
lute favorites, and there was great rejoicing when finally 
he appointed this Kinau, who proved to be an upright 
Christian ruler. 

The husbands of these women and many other high 
chiefs nobly cooperated with the missionaries, as also did 
Kamehameha III. It is hardly possible now to realize 
how great was the influence for good when these, the 
highest rulers of the nation, whose power was despotic, 
allied themselves with the mission cause. The stars 
seemed to be fighting against barbarism. 

The mission also derived advantage from the prime- 
val habit of the people to comply with the requirements 
of their ancient religion. When idolatry was abolished 
and Christianity approved by their rulers they carried 
over their strict observance of religious requirements to 
Christianity, and observed the Sabbath and Christian 
ordinances with remarkable earnestness. 

The mission cause was also greatly promoted by suc- 
cessive reinforcements of new missionaries from the Uni- 
ted States. The American Board early determined to 
hasten the evangelization of the Hawaiian Islands, that 
they might be able to hold them up to the world as an 
example of the success of Foreign Missions, and for this 



1 68 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

purpose sent thither their best men in large numbers. 
Fifty-two ordained ministers, twenty-one lay helpers, and 
eighty-three female missionaries, one hundred and fifty- 
six in all, a strong body of able, consecrated workers, 
labored for the good of this little nation during the years 
from 1820 to 1869. 

But notwithstanding all these favoring circumstances 
the great mass of the people long continued indifferent 
to the gospel. It took time to beat into their darkened 
minds the conception of a holy God and a sense of their 
need of salvation. In 1825 there were only ten church 
members, and in 1832 only five hundred and seventy- 
seven in all the islands. The missionaries finally came 
to realize more than ever before their need of divine help 
to change the character of the people. 

At length, in the years 1836 to 1839, occurred the 
great religious awakening by which the Hawaiian people 
were changed from a heathen to a Christian nation. This 
revival began first in an increased earnestness of the mis- 
sionaries themselves. In their annual gatherings in 1835 
and 1836 they were moved as never before to pray, not 
only for the conversion of the Hawaiians, but also for 
that of the whole world. As they then returned to their 
homes, some of them under sad bereavement, they soon 
observed an increased earnestness of the church members. 
Many of these became so active that it was remarked that 
they would have been ornaments to any church in the 
United States. There then occurred simultaneously over 
all the islands such a revival of religion as has rarely been 
seen in the history of the church. The people were so 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 69 

moved that they could hardly attend to their usual avo- 
cations. It was remarked that the voices of children 
were not heard as usual at play upon the beach, but that 
they were rather to be heard in the thickets and among 
the rocks at prayer. From early morning till late at 
night the natives came in crowds to the houses of the 
missionaries to inquire the way of life. The number 
attending preaching increased in some of the churches to 
six thousand. There was not an undue excitement, but 
a deep and solemn earnestness. The natives received the 
divine word like little children, with perfect trust, and 
drank in every word spoken like men dying with thirst. 
During the years from 1836 to 1840 about twenty thou- 
sand persons were received into the churches. During 
the forty subsequent years the average number of annual 
admissions to the churches was one thousand. 

The result of this revival was a progress and prosper- 
ity of the islands that has continued with little cessation 
to the present time. The Hawaiians now awakened 
with genuine earnestness to adopt the manners and cus- 
toms of Christian civilization. 

One of the most important results was the change 
in the form of civil government. Previous to this time 
the king and chiefs had been savage despots and the 
people under them like slaves, with no rights and no 
property, liable at any time to be driven from their 
homes and deprived of the little all they possessed. They 
cringed in abject fear before their chiefs, as before supe- 
rior beings descended from gods. Now, under the in- 
fluence of the new religious life that was pervading the 



I JO THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

nation, the king and his chiefs came to realize their need 
of a better system of government. They therefore in- 
vited one of the missionaries, Rev. William Richards, 
to deliver lectures before them on the sciences of politi- 
cal economy and civil government. The result of these 
lectures was that the king voluntarily relinquished a large 
part of his lands and of his power for the good of the 
people. Before this time he had been regarded as owner 
of all the lands ; he now assigned one third of them to 
the government and one third to the common people. 
He appointed a royal commission, who made investiga- 
tions in the case of every Hawaiian family and gave 
them titles in fee simple to the lands on which they and 
their forefathers had lived. He also employed the best 
legal talent he could obtain to form a code of laws and 
a constitution of government. This constitution provid- 
ed for a legislature consisting of nobles appointive by the 
king and of representatives elective by the people, a judi- 
ciary of higher and lower courts, and an excellent system 
of public schools. 

This establishment of a stable and well - ordered 
government caused a great improvement in the condition 
of the people. As they now owned their lands they be- 
came desirous to better cultivate the soil, to build better 
houses, and to obtain the comforts and luxuries of civiliza- 
tion. As they had political equality with the chiefs 
they ventured to contend for their rights in the courts 
with the higher classes, and even with the king himself, 
and to take their places in the halls of legislation to 
struggle for a proper administration of government 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 171 

Great industrial enterprises were now inaugurated, for- 
eign capital was introduced to develop the resources 
of the country, and the wealth of all classes greatly in- 
creased. 

And now, because of having an excellent system of 
government, the Hawaiian Islands obtained recognition 
from other nations as an independent country. This 
was needed ; for the felonious usurpations of France in 
the Pacific had extended to these islands, and a long 
struggle had been made by Roman-catholic priests and 
French war-vessels to bring them under the dominion 
of France, English officials had twice endeavored to 
bring them under the rule of Britain, and Russia had 
once sought possession of them. With great skill the 
Hawaiian government thwarted all these efforts, and 
obtained a joint treaty from France and Britain by which 
they reciprocally engaged to forever respect the indepen- 
dence of the Hawaiian Islands, "and never to take pos- 
seesion, either directly or under the title of protectorate 
or under any other form, of any part of the territory of 
which they are composed. " The United States had pre- 
viously made a treaty of friendly recognition of Hawaii 
as an independent country, and thus this little group of 
islands took a place in the world as entitled to the rank 
and privileges of a Christianized and civilized nation. 

Unfortunately the American Board now entered on 
a course which seriously imperilled the results of the fifty 
years of mission work that had been performed in these 
islands. Concluding that their object of quickly evan- 
gelizing the Hawaiians had been accomplished, and that 



172 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

they could hold them up to the world as an illustration 
of missionary success, they determined to withdraw from 
them, and with this view sent their secretary, Rev. 
Rufus Anderson, to the islands, in 1863, to arrange for 
placing native pastors over the churches. Finally, on the 
15th of June, 1870, a jubilee celebration of fifty years of 
labor was held with great pomp in Honolulu ; and in 
the Kawaiahao church, in the presence of a congregation 
of three thousand people, of the king and queen, the high 
officials of the government, and the representatives of 
foreign powers, memorial addresses were delivered in 
the Hawaiian and English languages, and the announce- 
ment made that the work of the American Board in the 
Hawaiian Islands was completed. 

Delightful though this announcement was to the 
public abroad, it was received by many people in the 
islands with sad forebodings. It was evident that the 
Hawaiian Christians needed to be kept under tutelage 
many more years before they would be capable of properly 
managing their churches. Trying times were before the 
nation, when they would need the help of the best wis- 
dom and best energy of the American missionaries. The 
change was like putting a ship under inexperienced offi- 
cers when breakers are ahead and storms brewing. 

After this time the government of the islands was con- 
ducted by monarchs who, with the exception of king 
Lunalilo, were far from friendly to the mission cause. 
As it had been of great advantage to the missionaries 
during the fifty previous years for the kings and chiefs 
to use their influence in their behalf, so now it was a 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 73 

great disadvantage to them for the kings and their offi- 
cials to use their influence against them. A struggle 
now commenced in which the successive monarchs 
sought to override or change the constitution of the 
government in order to obtain power and money for 
their dissipation and senseless pomp, and the intelligent 
portion of the people sought to maintain constitutional 
government. To overcome the opposition to their plans 
the kings used bribery at the polls and in the legisla- 
ture, awakened race prejudices, revived heathen sorcery, 
and strove to demoralize the churches. The painful 
history of these political events combines with the story 
of the missionary operations like the strange blending 
found on Hawaii of barren lava-flows with tracts of 
luxuriant vegetation. 

Kamehameha III., styled "The Good King," died 
on December 15, 1854, and was succeeded by Alexander 
Liholiho, Kamehameha IV., a very bright but dissipa- 
ted man. During the reign of the latter the * ' Queen's 
Hospital " was built by money raised by his personal 
solicitations and those of his queen, for which they are 
gratefully remembered by the people. During this reign 
also the Anglican Church was introduced from England, " 
the bishops of which refused to recognize the American 
missionaries, and publicly gave thanks that "at last the 
true religion had been brought to Hawaii. " They obtained 
a small following of Englishmen, but almost none of the 
natives. They have been sustained chiefly by money sent 
from England. This king died November 30, 1863, at 
the age of only twenty-nine years. His death was 



174 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

hastened by dissipation. He was succeeded by his 
brother Lot, Kamehameha V. 

This prince contrived to have himself proclaimed 
king without swearing to the constitution of the govern- 
ment, and in an irregular way called a convention to 
make a new constitution. Finding that he could not 
control this convention he prorogued it, and taking a 
cue from the words with which Kamehameha III. had 
established the previous constitution, "I give this con- 
stitution to my people," proclaimed a constitution of 
his own making without submitting it to the suffrages 
of the people. The chief change he made from the 
former constitution was in requiring that the nobles and 
representatives, who had formerly sat separately, should 
sit and vote together in one chamber, so as to be more 
powerfully controlled by himself and his cabinet. He 
then compelled the legislature to enact a law for licens- 
ing kahunas as doctors and introduced kahunas with the 
licentious hula dancers into his palace, thereby legalizing 
the essential elements of heathenism : its loathsome sen- 
suality, its terrorizing sorcery, and its worship of demons 
and even of idols. This was like the act of " Jeroboam 
the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. " After this 
sorcery became a powerful instrument in the hands of 
the monarchs for carrying elections. This king died on 
December n, 1872, at the age of forty-nine years, and 
with him ended the line of the Kamehamehas. 

The legislature was now called to elect a king, and 
made choice of William Lunalilo, a grandson of the 
chief who killed Capt. Cook and the highest in rank of 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 75 

all the chiefs in the kingdom. The rival candidate for 
the throne was David Kalakaua, who now instigated the 
soldiers in the barracks to revolt, in order to gain the 
throne for himself, but the revolt was skilfully quelled. 
Lunalilo died on January 18, 1874, after a reign of only 
one year and twenty-five days. He left a noble monu- 
ment for himself in his bequest of property worth a 
quarter of a million dollars for the establishment of a 
home for aged Hawaiians. 

The legislature was then again summoned to elect a 
king. There were two candidates — the ex-queen Em- 
ma, the relict of Kamehameha IV., and the rebel 
prince, David Kalakaua. The issue in the election was 
a proposed reciprocity treaty with the United States. 
As Emma was partly of British extraction, and a patron 
of the Anglican Church, the foreign community threw 
its influence for David Kalakaua, and he was elected on 
February 12, 1874. As soon as the vote was announced 
a mob of Emma's adherents attacked the legislature, 
but they were quickly dispersed by marines that were 
landed by request of the cabinet from American and 
British war-ships in the harbor. The reciprocity treaty 
was then negotiated, and went into effect on September 
9, 1876, and greatly promoted the industrial prosperity 
of the islands. 

Encouraged by the increasing wealth of the country, 
Kalakaua now entered on a course of extravagance, 
usurpation and paganism that to the islands, which had 
previously enjoyed a tolerably good government, was 
like one of the mountain torrents that sudden cloud- 



I?6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

bursts send down their valleys to devastate their culti- 
vated fields. The scope of this sketch will not admit of 
more than an allusion to the chief events of his reign : 
his expensive journey around the world, his costly coro- 
nation nine years after his accession to the throne, his 
coinage of a million dollars at an expense of $150,000, 
his scheme for a sort of empire of the Pacific, his promo- 
tion of the traffic in ardent spirits and opium, and his fre- 
quent arbitrary changes of his cabinet, which gave it the 
name of being "kaleidoscopic." 

Through all the changes of his cabinet one minister 
was retained, Walter M. Gibson. He had gone to the 
islands as an emissary of Brigham Young and had en- 
riched himself by Mormonism, and afterwards renounced 
that irreligion and had been excommunicated by the Lat- 
ter-day Saints, "handed over to Satan, to be buffetted 
for a thousand years," because he would not return a 
thousand dollars lent to him by Brigham Young. He 
posed as the friend of the Polynesian race against the 
white people, and thereby got himself elected to the 
legislature, and finally to the leadership of the king's 
cabinet, and for many years aided the king in his prodi- 
gality and usurpations. 

The worst influences of Kalakaua were exerted to 
demoralize the churches, the only remaining bulwark 
against his corrupt measures. The faithful pastors of 
these churches found their influence counteracted by 
sorcerers who were employed by the king, and their 
support cut off through the exertions of government 
officials, while large offers of help were made if they 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 77 

would favor the king's projects. On one occasion the 
king persuaded the most of them to withdraw from the 
Missionary Association in order to form a state church 
under himself as their "Father;" and this scheme was 
barely defeated by the fierce opposition of Rev. J. Waia- 
mau, the pastor of the Kaumakapili Church of Honolu- 
lu. It seemed for a while that there would be a lava- 
like outbreak of the ancient heathenism like a volcanic 
eruption through verdant fields. 

The indignation of the better classes against the evil 
course of the king rose to a white heat when at last he 
accepted a bribe to sell the license for the opium traffic 
to a Chinaman for $75,000, and then, retaining this 
money, gave the license to another Chinaman for another 
bribe of $80,000. The people of all classes then assem- 
bled in a great mass-meeting and demanded that he 
should dismiss the corrupt Gibson cabinet and proclaim 
a new constitution that would properly limit his power. 
Although he had troops and munitions of war and the 
people were unarmed he did not dare to resist the fierce 
public sentiment, and signed a constitution which pro- 
vided that the upper branch of the legislature should be 
elected by the people voting on a property qualification, 
instead of being appointed by himself; that the cabinet 
should be removable only by an act of the legislature, 
and that he could approve or veto acts of the legislature 
only with the concurrence of his cabinet. 

During these events the king's sister, Mrs. Lydia 
Liliuokalani Dominis, was in England. On her return 
she fiercely charged him with cowardice in signing the 



178 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

new constitution, and conspired with several prominent 
men to compel him to abdicate in her favor. Failing in 
this she formed a secret league of the natives to over- 
throw the government, and with the aid of Robert Wil- 
cox, a half-caste, on the 30th of July, 1889, gathered 
natives to her house and armed them with rifles and 
cannon. They suddenly seized the government build- 
ings, the palace and the military barracks, expecting 
that there would be an uprising of the whole native pop- 
ulation in their favor. But the white residents surrounded 
the palace and by continual firing drove the rebels from 
their cannon, and finally, by dynamite bombs, compelled 
them to surrender. Wilcox was tried for treason and 
acquitted by a native jury, and afterwards repeatedly 
elected by the natives to the legislature. 

After the death in San Francisco of King Kalakaua, 
on the 20th of January, 1891, his sister reluctantly took 
the oath to maintain the constitution and therefore was 
declared Queen, with the title Liliuokalani. It was 
hoped that she would be restrained by her good cabinet 
and the requirements of the constitution ; but she strug- 
gled to overcome all limitations to her power, and at 
length succeeded in removing her good cabinet and ap- 
pointing a new cabinet of her own accessaries. She 
then signed bills for the opium traffic and the Louisiana 
Lottery, and on the 14th of January, 1893, undertook to 
proclaim a new constitution which would give her the 
power of removing, as well as appointing, the judges of 
the Supreme Court and disfranchise almost all the white 
population. Even her corrupt cabinet shrank from sus- 




HAWAIIAN WOMAN, WITH HAIR NECKLACE AND WHALE S TOOTH. 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 79 

taining her in this effort to subvert the government, and 
turned to the leading citizens for aid in maintaining good 
order and peace. The community now again assembled 
in a great mass-meeting and established a provisional 
government which should seek annexation to the United 
States. This new government was at once recognized 
by the United States and the other civilized nations. 

It is delightful to note that during these unhappy 
struggles the most intelligent native Hawaiians, their 
leading clergymen and members of the legislature, resist- 
ed the evil course of the monarchs at no little peril to 
themselves. The traveller on Hawaii sometimes finds 
trees of gorgeous bloom rising alone out of the ancient 
lava-flows, seeming the more beautiful by contrast with 
their gloomy surroundings. Thus the steadfast integrity 
of these Hawaiians appears the more admirable because 
of its continuance amid the almost universal corrup- 
tion of the people and the wiles and threats of the mon- 
archs. 

During 1893a treaty of annexation of Hawaii to the 
United States was partly negotiated with President Har- 
rison, but it was withdrawn by his successor on the alle- 
gation that the influence of American officials and troops 
aided in the dethronement of the queen. For more than 
a year the Hawaiian government was harassed by con- 
spiracies for the restoration of the ex-queen to the throne. 

Finally the provisional government, with the aid of 
delegates from every district of the islands, formed a con- 
stitution of republican government ; and on the Fourth 
of July, 1894, President Dole proclaimed the new Re- 



180 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

public from the steps of the Iolani Palace in the presence 
of a great concourse of the people. As he concluded his 
brief and appropriate address by raising his hand towards 
heaven and exclaiming, ''God save the Republic!" the 
intense feelings of the spectators broke forth in immense 
applause, and a huge flag was raised with salutes of artil- 
lery. 

Thus the enterprise of Christian benevolence that was 
begun seventy years before among pagan islanders, and 
continued with perseverance, forbearance and courage 
under the trials of monarchy, bore fruit in the establish- 
ment of a civil government that is equal to the best gov- 
ernments of enlightened countries. 

In January, 1895, an insane attempt was made to 
overthrow this government and reinstate Liliuokalani. 
Taking advantage of the withdrawal of all war-ships from 
Honolulu, a few former officials of the monarchy and 
foreign adventurers imported firearms and ammunition, 
armed over two hundred reckless Hawaiians at a place 
near Diamond Head, about two miles from Honolulu, 
and prepared to storm Honolulu by night with dynamite 
bombs. Providentially in the evening, before the night 
set for this attack, the 6th of January, some of these con- 
spirators attracted the attention of the police by their 
disorderly conduct, under the influence of gin, and the 
plot was discovered. In the struggle that ensued with 
the police the conspirators killed Charles Carter, one of 
the leading citizens. They then rushed to attack the 
city, but fortunately they mistook a small company of 
citizen guards, that met them in the darkness, for a 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. l8l 

strong force, and withdrew to the mountains. The gov- 
ernment immediately called out its troops and volunteer 
bands of citizens, and after several days of fighting cap- 
tured all these rebels. They were tried by court-martial 
and sentenced to various punishments of fines and im- 
prisonment. As the rebellion had been planned in the 
house of the ex-queen, and dynamite bombs were stored 
in this building, she was arrested on a charge of mis- 
prision. She hastened to abdicate all claims to the 
throne and to take the oath of allegiance to the Repub- 
lic. She was tried in court-martial and convicted, and 
sentenced to five years' imprisonment. 

All this struggle with a pagan monarchy would 
doubtless never have occurred if the mission work had 
been continued in the islands, and the natives contin- 
ually lifted to a higher character and nerved to resist 
the temptations and threats of corrupt rulers. 

But notwithstanding these demoralizing influences 
the Hawaiian islands have grown in wealth, culture 
and material prosperity. The revenue of the govern- 
ment has increased to $1,570,000, the exports to the 
value of $13,870,000, and the imports to the value of 
$5>438,ooo. There are no poorhouses in the islands, 
and no occasions for them. All the people are in fairly 
comfortable circumstances, and have some degree of edu- 
cation ; all the children are taught the English language 
in the public schools ; the natives are a peaceful and law- 
abiding people ; the number of convicts in prison is only 
one-third of one per cent, of the population, and the 
greater part of these are Asiatics and Portuguese. 



1 82 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

The churches of the Hawaiian islands have survived 
the corrupting influences of the Hawaiian monarchs, 
but have greatly suffered, and the type of their piety is 
lower than it was thirty years ago. 

A happy result of the evangelization of the natives 
has been the formation of a Christian colony, of the de- 
scendants of the missionaries and of foreigners who 
otherwise would never have been attracted to the islands. 
In this portion of the community there are six churches 
of the English-speaking people. The largest of these 
is the Union Church of Honolulu, which in 1893 had a 
membership of 460, and built, and dedicated without 
debt, a house for worship at a cost of 1125,000, and has 
always most liberally contributed to the Hawaiian Home 
and Foreign Mission enterprises. In these enterprises 
churches have been organized of the Chinese, with 150 
members, of the Japanese, with 120 members, and of 
the Portuguese, with about 100 members. Besides the 
excellent Government schools there is the noble Oahu 
College, for higher education, and many Christian board- 
ing-schools for Hawaiian children. One of these board- 
ing-schools, the ' ' Kamehameha School, " was endowed 
by Mrs. Charles R. Bishop by an investment worth 
1500,000. There is also the North Pacific Missionary 
Institute, which has been conducted by Rev. C. M. 
Hyde, D. D., and Rev. H. H. Parker, for supplying 
the churches and foreign fields with ordained ministers. 
Foreign mission enterprises have been carried on with 
great success by the aid of native Hawaiians in the 
Micronesian and Marquesas Islands. The Hawaiian 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 83 

islands are thus like a little world by themselves, with 
their Evangelical Associations, their Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, their Woman's Christian Temperance 
Union, and their Home and Foreign Missions. 

If the reader were to land in Honolulu to-day he 
might almost think he was in a city in the United States, 
except for a rare beauty of tropical vegetation. He 
would see street cars, and telegraph and telephone lines, 
and electric lights. He would find nineteen steam- 
ers plying between the islands, and great palatial packets 
running to America, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. 
He would see the natives dressed like Americans, and 
engaged in important work as teachers, lawyers, minis- 
ters and officers of government. Where seventy years 
ago there was an unclothed race of savages he would 
find a civilized community, who live as Americans, 
support their own churches, and with marvellous suc- 
cess are carrying on foreign missions. 

All this change from barbarism to civilization has 
cost the American churches, in benevolent contributions 
through sixty years, a little over a million dollars. This 
investment has paid, even in dollars and cents. The 
annual income of the vessels merely carrying the com- 
merce of these islands is a million dollars, not to speak 
of the commerce itself, which is worth $20,000,000, and 
will increase to twice that amount. 

This investment has paid in the security of life and 
property that has thereby been caused. Instead of 
these islands being a pirates' lair, as without the mission 
enterprise they would have been, they are safe and en- 



1 84 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

chanting places of resort. The United States spent 
$6,000,000 in subduing the little tribe of Modocs 
in California, in ten years 1232,000,000 in wars with 
Indians, and in their whole history $500,000,000 in 
such wars ; but the Hawaiians are far better renovated 
by a much smaller expenditure. 

This investment has paid in the social and moral 
good that has been thereby caused, and which cannot 
be estimated in money. The United States has spent 
$50,000,000 in feeding and clothing Indians, while by 
mission enterprise much more could have been accom- 
plished for them at far less expense. 

This investment has paid also in the 50,000 per- 
sons who have been received into the churches, the most 
of them, it may be hoped, redeemed to everlasting life. 
It is true that these converts have not risen to the high 
character that has been displayed in countries of older 
civilization, and that in recent times they have greatly 
degenerated. As we go to them with high standards of 
character, to which our race has come through centuries 
of Christian privilege, we see much in them to regret ; 
but when we call to mind what they formerly were, and 
consider from what depths of degradation they have 
been lifted, we cannot be too thankful to God for what 
they are. The words that were once uttered by the 
saintly John Newton of himself might well be adopted 
by them : "I am not what I was ; I am not what I 
should be ; I am not what I shall be : but by the grace 
of God I am what I am." All that they are, all their 
prosperity and progress, all the safety and delight of 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 85 

life among them, is because of the grace of God ; be- 
cause, in answer to prayer, God poured out his Spirit in 
connection with the labors of the missionaries among 
them. 

The prospect now is, that in closer relations with 
the United States and other enlightened countries, and 
in the increasing commerce that will be stimulated by 
the future construction of the Nicaragua Canal and the 
further development of great lines of trans-oceanic navi- 
gation, the Hawaiian Islands will grow in wealth, popu- 
lation and prosperity. The present population is esti- 
mated at about 99,000. It consists of 33,000 Ha- 
waiians, 8,000 half-castes, 23,000 Japanese, 15,000 
Chinese, 13,000 Portuguese, and 7,000 foreign and 
Hawaiian-born Americans and Europeans. The conver- 
sion of the Hawaiians has not been a mere ''deathbed 
repentance;" it will continue in their blending with 
foreign nationalities and in the Christian character of 
the entire future population, of whatever races it may 
consist. Though new difficulties will doubtless arise 
in the way of their Christian progress, it may be be- 
lieved that the same God, who by wonderful providences 
and blessed outpourings of his Spirit has been with them 
in former years, will continue with them in the future, 
and that the Hawaiian Islands will ever stand as a 
monument of his blessing on the cause of Christian 
missions. 

Hawaii's national motto is, ' ' Ua mau ka aea o ka 
aina ika pono, " ' ' The life of the country is in right- 
eousness. " 
In April 1900, an Act of the American Congress, 



1 86 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

providing for the admission of the Hawaiian Islands, as a 
Territory, into the American Union, was signed by Pres- 
ident McKinley, to take effect on the 14th day of the 
following June. On the day thus appointed, in the presence 
of a great multitude of various nationalities assembled at 
the Executive Building in Honolulu, the Hawaiian flag 
was lowered, the American flag raised, and Ex-President 
Sanford B. Dole inaugurated as the First Governor of the 
Territory. 

By the terms of the annexation the previously existing 
Hawaiian Legislature and Judiciary and the Hawaiian 
laws, not conflicting with the American laws, were con- 
tinued; all persons who had previously been Hawaiian 
citizens were declared to be American citizens; the 
Hawaiian national debt, amounting to four million dollars, 
was assumed by the American Government ; and it was 
provided that the revenues, to be subsequently derived 
from the Hawaiian lands, should be applied for educational 
and other purposes in behalf of the Hawaiian people. 

Thus, by the payment of four million dollars, the United 
States acquired possession of a group, that is more than 
twice as large as the aggregate area of the Samoan, Tongan, 
Cook, Society, Tuamotu, and Marquesas Groups ; ' that 
by its customs yields the American Government more than 
a million dollars a year ; and that, by its situation at the 



1 The areas in square miles of the above-mentioned South Pacific 
groups are : Samoa 1,160, Tonga 374, Cook T42, Society 462, 
Tuamotu 350, Marquesas 480 ; total 2,968 sq. miles. The area of 
the Hawaiian Group is 6,454 sq. miles. 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 87 

" cross-roads " of the Pacific, is of incalculable importance 
for the future naval and commercial control of that ocean. 

By the annexation the Hawaiian Islands secured pro- 
tection against other nations, and economic and other 
privileges in better relations to the United States. It was 
not well for this little group to continue liable to be seized 
by one of the cormorant nations seeking it. Its continued 
autonomy was impossible. For defence, as well as for 
many other advantages it needed, like the Fijian, Cook, 
Samoan, Tongan, and Solomon Groups, to be united to 
one of the great countries on the continents. For many 
years union with the United States had evidently been its 
destiny. Its Moho Nobilis of golden plumage was to nestle 
under the wing of the American Eagle. 

Yet to the Hawaiian Islands the annexation was in some 
respects disadvantageous. According to the American 
system the revenues from customs, amounting to $i r 
200,000 a year, were to go to the Federal Government. 
This revenue the Hawaiian Islands needed, because of 
their mid-ocean situation, to defray the expenses arising 
from their increasing commerce with other countries. The 
Federal Government did not need this revenue. By it 
that Government in the first four years after the annexation 
received back more than the four million dollars it paid for 
the Hawaiian Group. For these reasons the Hawaiian 
Government petitioned Congress to enact that three- 
fourths of this revenue should be applied in the Hawaiian 
Islands for military and naval defenses, harbor improve- 
ments and Government and educational buildings. To 
this petition Congress has not yet made any response. 



188 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

The annexation was disadvantageous to the Hawaiian 
Islands, because, also, by it universal suffrage was esta- 
blished in those islands. Previously the Hawaiian Govern- 
ment had required a small property qualification for the 
exercise of the elective franchise. Against the removal of 
this requirement the Hawaiian Government and also the 
Committee of Congress, that was sent to determine the 
propriety and proper terms of the annexation, protested ; 
but Congress, influenced by the popular sentimentalism 
concerning universal suffrage, disregarded the protest. 
The result is that, to a great extent, the lower classes of 
the people have been able to determine who shall be the 
members of the Legislature and shall occupy the subordi- 
nate offices of the Government. 

With this power the lower classes have been able to 
secure a great extension of the traffic in intoxicating 
liquors. Hardly a worse calamity could have befallen 
them. It is to be regretted that the American Govern- 
ment, in establishing its rule over this group, did not as 
stringently restrict this traffic, as has Great Britain in the 
Fijian, Cook, Tongan, and Solomon Islands, and as has 
Germany in its Samoan possessions. 

The annexation produced in the Hawaiian Islands a 
wonderful economic prosperity. The establishment of a 
stable, well-ordered Government, and the perpetuation of 
the privilege of free trade with the United States, caused 
a great development of industrial and commercial enter- 
prises. 

This development is best illustrated by the following 
accounts of the sugar industry, the chief enterprise of the 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 1 89 

group. In 1900 the output of this industry was 172,265 
tons; in 1906 it was 373,302 tons. The aggregate value 
of the exports of sugar in 1905 was $35,113,430. The 
greatest mill of the group, that of the Hawaiian Com- 
mercial and Sugar Company, produced, in the year 1906, 
43,652 tons of sugar. This mill in one week produced 
2,100 tons of sugar, an average of 350 tons a day. The 
present value of the plants for irrigation of the sugar 
plantations is $70,000,000. The water for irrigation is 
obtained from mountain streams and artesian wells. One 
of the largest plantations, obtaining water from artesian 
wells, lifts daily, by pumping from forty wells, to the height 
of one hundred and fifty feet 69,750,000 gallons of water. 
The plantations expend annually in fertilization twenty to 
forty dollars per acre. The amount thus expended may 
be inferred from the fact that the plantations each have 
from a thousand to seven thousand acres under cultivation. 
The fertilization almost doubles the yield of sugar. The 
aggregate number of laborers on the plantations is 45,000. 
The skilled laborers are chiefly Americans and Europeans. 
The unskilled laborers are chiefly Japanese, Chinese and 
Portuguese. The unskilled laborers receive as wages about 
twenty dollars a month, are freely provided with houses, 
small plots of land for cultivation for themselves, fuel, 
medical attendance, and school and church privileges. 

Besides this industry, there are profitable enterprises for 
the production of pineapples, bananas, coffee, rice, sisal, 
honey and live stock ; and a very promising beginning 
has been made in the production of rubber and vanilla. 
In 1905 the total exports amounted in value to $36,1 1 2,055 
and the imports to $26,882,199. 



I90 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

The prosperity of the islanders is illustrated by their 
massive commercial and public buildings, attractive pri- 
vate residences, and systems of steam locomotion, electric 
power, electric lighting, telephony and wireless telegraphy. 
Very delightfully the islanders are uniting the comforts 
and charms of civilization with the rarest beauties of the 
Tropics. 

Since the annexation, as before that event, the mis- 
sionary cause in the Hawaiian Islands has been seriously 
beset by the adverse influences of the non-Christian 
peoples that have gone thither. In these respects the 
history of this group differs from that of the groups in the 
Southern Pacific, where there has been, in various degrees, 
seclusion from foreigners, and where the missionary en- 
terprise has prospered in proportion to that seclusion. In 
Hawaii there has been no seclusion. As has been men- 
tioned, the reckless and dissolute adventurers, who had 
gone thither before the arrival of the missionaries, sought 
to prevent the missionaries from securing the privilege of 
settling in the group, and afterward, when the missionaries 
induced the King to enact laws forbidding immorality, 
they menaced and attacked the missionaries, and strove to 
obstruct their work. Subsequently the work of the mis- 
sionaries was seriously hindered by the influence of the 
depraved men in the crews of the ships that continually 
visited the group. The late Rev. Benjamin Snow, mis- 
sionary at Micronesia, once stated that the coming of one 
ship to an island would there set back the missionary work 
a year. During the period when the whale-fishery was 
very prosperous whale-ships were continually visiting the 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. I9I 

group, or remaining there for shelter in the winter. 
Sometimes fifty to a hundred of these ships were at one 
time at a single port. It may be inferred how deplorably 
the natives were demoralized by the frequent visits of these 
ships and their prolonged mooring at the island ports. 
Recently the work of the missionaries has been still further 
hindered by the multitudes of Asiatics who have gone to 
the group for employment on the plantations. According 
to the census of 1900 there were at that time in the group 
61,115 Japanese, and 25,762 Chinese, also 15,675 Portu- 
guese, most of the latter Roman Catholics. Thus there 
was a total of 102,437 alien people, unfriendly to the 
missionary cause. At the same time the number of the 
Hawaiians was only 29,787, and of part Hawaiians 7,848, 
a total of 37,635. Nearly all these Orientals are pagans 
and are maintaining or propagating their paganism. The 
Japanese have erected twenty- two Buddhist temples and, 
in imitation of the Christian Churches, are conducting 
Day and Night Schools, Sunday Schools, and Young Men's 
Buddhist Associations. Thus the work of the missionaries 
in this group has been to overcome not only the primeval 
paganism of the Hawaiians, but also the anti-Christian 
influences powerfully exerted by reprobate white men and 
by these pagan and Roman Catholic races. 

Very remarkably the natives have withstood these evil 
influences. Those of them that are not connected with 
Churches have, indeed, been sadly drawn into intemperance 
and immorality ; but the church members have generally 
stood firm, and recently they have awakened to greater 
interest in their Churches and in all good enterprises. 



192 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

During the recent sessions of the Legislature the native 
members of that body displayed more wisdom and better 
character than did most of the white members. To this 
people Christianity has been, indeed, an uplifting and 
conserving power ; but it could not wholly prevent their 
decimation by the new diseases introduced by the multi- 
tude of foreigners coming to them ; and yet it has retarded 
this decimation ; and now, counted with their half-caste 
progeny, who are an improvement on the parent stock, 
they are no longer decreasing in number. The fact, that 
they have been making Christian development while beset 
by evil foreign influences, indicates that they will hereafter 
hold their own against demoralizing influences and con- 
tinue to advance in Christian civilization. 

Because of this encouraging condition of the Hawaiians 
the missionary enterprise in their group is no longer spe- 
cially for them. A new era has there begun. The mis- 
sionary enterprise there is now for the hordes of Asiatic 
pagans and European Roman Catholics entering the group. 
The work for these peoples is urgently necessary. They 
are not only numerous, but also rapidly multiplying. 
Their children will soon be claiming the elective franchise, 
and perhaps eventually gaining political control of the 
group. 

To the necessity of working for these races the Christian 
portion of the community are fully awake ; and with the 
missionary spirit, they have inherited from the missionary 
Fathers who uplifted the Hawaiians from their paganism, 
they are laboring faithfully and making large contributions 
for the evangelization of these races. They have gathered 



THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. I93 

more than six thousand of the children into public and 
private schools, conducted in the English language, and 
they are developing for them and for the children of the 
Hawaiians the cosmopolitan Pacific Institute, which is 
giving Christian as well as secular education. With the 
aid of American missionaries procured from China and 
Japan and of Chinese and Japanese clergymen from those 
countries they are conducting in all parts of the group- 
religious services for these races. The same divine 
blessing that attended the labors for the Hawaiians is 
attending the labors for these races. Already the Con- 
gregationalists have organized sixteen Japanese churches, 
five Chinese churches, and two Portuguese churches ; the 
Methodist seven Japanese churches and one Korean 
church, and the Episcopalians one Japanese church. 

Very delightfully the churches of the various races in 
each of these Denominations are united in Christian 
fellowship, and, as a result of this, there is throughout the 
group a harmony and friendliness between all the people 
of these races. 

In 1907 the population of the group was about 150,000 ; 
the number of members in the Congregational churches 
was 6,325, in the Episcopalian churches 2,500, in the 
Methodist churches 1,000, in the German Lutheran 
churches 150. The number of the Roman Catholic ad- 
herents was 10,000, of the Buddhist 40,000, of the 
Mormon 5,133. 



194 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



CHAPTER X. 

SAMOA. 

No sooner did Mr. Williams gain a foothold in the 
Hervey Islands than he determined to push on in the 
missionary enterprise to the numerous islands farther 
west, and with this view began to build a vessel to be 
used exclusively for missionary purposes ; for it was 
difficult to obtain passage to other islands by passing 
vessels. In the construction of this vessel he displayed 
a genius for mechanical contrivance hardly to have been 
looked for in a missionary apostle. With the aid of the 
chiefs of Rarotonga he obtained from the mountains the 
timber needed, which he split into planks. To fashion 
the ironmongery required he made a forge with bellows 
of goat skins, but the innumerable rats on the island de- 
voured the goat skins ; whereupon he made an apparatus 
with two boxes and valves with which, with the aid 
of eight or ten powerful men, he was able to make the 
blasts of air required for his forge. He supplied the 
vessel with sails made of mats, calked her with cocoanut 
fibre and breadfruit gum, and furnished her with a rud- 
der adjusted with a piece of a pick-axe, a cooper's adze, 
and a large hoe. It measured sixty by eighteen feet, 
and was of seventy or eighty tons burden, and named the 
" Messenger of Peace. " 

The first voyage of this vessel was successfully made 



SAMOA. 195 

to and from Aitutaki, and then Mr. Williams went in her 
to Tahiti. No little curiosity and wonder were excited 
among the seamen at Papeete when this strange-looking 
craft came in sight, and still more when it was closely 
examined. With the aid of competent ship-carpenters it 
was then partly made over and rendered seaworthy. 

In July 1830 Mr. Williams, with his colleague, Mr. 
BarfT, and seven native teachers, embarked on this vessel 
for the Samoa, or Navigator's, Islands, two thousand 
miles distant. 

The Samoa Islands are situated between 13 30' and 
14° 30' south latitude and 163 and 173 west longitude, 
and consist of thirteen islands, only four of which are of 
much importance. The most easterly is Manua, a 
dome-like island, rising to the height of 2, 500 feet. It 
is sixteen miles in circumference, and covered with luxu- 
riant vegetation. Near it are the two islets, Oloosinga 
and Ofoo. 

About sixty miles further west is Tutuila, an island 
seventeen miles long and five wide. It is cut almost in 
two from the south side by the inlet Pagopago, the safest 
harbor of the group. The coasts of this island are bold 
and without reefs except at the mouths of the harbors. 
Along the shores there is a beautiful growth of cocoa- 
nut, breadfruit and banana trees ; and a continuous 
forest extends to the summits of the mountains, which 
are crowned with grand perpendicular lava clifTs. 

About thirty-six miles further northwest is Upolu, an 
island forty miles long and fourteen broad, on the north 
side of which is Apia, the chief town of the group. This 



196 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

town extends in a semicircular form around the head of 
a small bay that affords a safe anchorage for ships in 
ordinary weather but is open to the full violence of the 
northwesterly storms. The mountains of this island are 
not lofty but very picturesque, with varied forms of deep 
gorges, high ridges and rocky precipices, and with an 
indescribable beauty of tropical vegetation. "The 
plumes of the cocoanut wave from many a high hill 
almost as profusely as from the groves at the shore." 
Back of Apia, at an elevation of 750 feet, is a grand wa- 
terfall, which is a valuable landmark for ships. At the 
west end of Upolu are two islets, Apolima, which is rocky, 
and inaccessible except through an entrance just wide 
enough for a boat to enter, and Manono, which is cov- 
ered with breadfruit trees. 

About twelve miles west of Upoli is Savaii, an island 
that has been compared to Hawaii, to which it probably 
gave a name and like which it is, in comparison with the 
rest of its group, the largest island, of the latest volcanic 
formation, and has the highest mountains and the great- 
est areas of rocky land. It measures forty miles by 
twenty, and rises to the height of four thousand feet. 

The Samoas have substantially the same flora as the 
islands further east and north, but some different species 
of fauna. Here are to be found elegant varieties of pig- 
eons and parrots, also innumerable bats, called "flying- 
foxes," which often hang in multitudes from the branches 
of the trees, "giving the appearance of some curious 
fruit ;" and small insectivorous bats, which cluster in 
thousands among the rocks, "clinging to one another 




A Samoan Woman. 



SAMOA. 197 

till they appear like brown ropes; also giant crabs, 
sometimes three feet long, which climb the cocoanut- 
trees and tear open and feed on their nuts ; and harm- 
less snakes, which grow sometimes to about four feet in 
length. The missionary, Williams, during his first visit 
to Savaii expressed a desire to see some of these snakes, 
and in a few minutes some girls came to him with sev- 
eral of them twined around their necks. ' ' The natives 
sometimes enclose the snakes in their bamboo pillows, 
that their noise of crawling and hissing may induce 
sleep. " 

On their way to the Samoa Islands the missionaries 
on the Messenger of Peace turned aside to visit the Ton- 
ga Islands, in order to confer with the Wesleyan mis- 
sionaries in that group, and there took on board a 
Samoan chief, Fauea, who desired to return to Savaii, 
having been absent from his home eleven years. This 
chief had a Christian wife and was friendly to the mis- 
sionaries, and engaged to assist them in their work. On 
arriving at Savaii they received a warm welcome from 
the people through his influence. As yet the Samoans 
had seen but few people from civilized lands, and they 
gathered in great numbers to see the white missionaries, 
some climbing the cocoanut-trees and gazing at them by 
the light of torches as in the evening they went to pay 
their respects to the chief of the district ; and finally 
they took the missionaries on their shoulders and carried 
them with blazing flambeaux to the chief. He gave them 
a royal welcome, supplied their vessel with abundance of 
vegetables, fruit and pigs, and gave permission for the 



198 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

teachers to reside among his people. Messrs. Williams 
and Barff promised, as they left the island, to return in 
ten or eleven months. 

After the departure of the Messenger of Peace, Fauea 
assisted the Rarotongan teachers according to his prom- 
ise ; and soon the chief Malietoa was induced to make a 
trial of renouncing idolatry. But he requested his fam- 
ily to wait six weeks to see the consequences before they 
should imitate his example. After three weeks his sons, 
who were eager to escape the requirements of their pa- 
ganism, gathered their friends together and defied their 
gods by eating the kind of fish called anae (mullet), in 
which their tutelary gods were supposed to reside, and 
which were regarded as tabu to them. Their immunity 
in this conduct encouraged the people to renounce their 
idolatry ; a great meeting was called, and it was decided 
to send their chief idol, which was a mere piece of old 
rotten matting, to sea to be drowned ; but by the request 
of the teachers it was preserved and afterwards given to 
Mr. Williams, and by him sent to the missionary muse- 
um at London. The news of these events brought na- 
tives in canoes from the neighboring islands to seek 
instruction from the teachers, and these natives, after 
returning heme, destroyed their idols and erected chap- 
els for Christian worship. 

Mr. Williams was obliged to defer his return to the 
Samoa Islands about two years, until the nth of Octo- 
ber, 1839. In returning he went first to Manua, the 
most easterly of the group. Here a delightful surprise 
awaited him. The natives came off in canoes to his 



SAMOA. 199 

vessel exclaiming that they were "people of the Word," 
Christians, and were waiting for a missionary ship. 
They had received Christian instruction from some Tahi- 
tians who while voyaging among the Society Islands had 
been storm-driven to this island. They had already 
erected a chapel, were regularly observing the ordinances 
of Christian worship, and were able to read the Tahitian 
Scriptures. They were much disappointed that Mr. 
Williams could not give them a missionary. 

Mr. Williams next went to Tutuila, and endeavored 
to land in a boat on the south side of this island at a 
place called Leone, where not long before a boat's crew 
of the La Perouse Expedition had been massacred. See- 
ing a large crowd on the shore he hesitated to land, when 
a chief waded out towards the boat and urged him to 
visit them, saying that his people had become Christians 
through the instruction of teachers who were left by a 
great white chief twenty months previous at Savaii. Mr. 
Williams informed him that he was the chief referred to ; 
whereupon the chief joyfully gave a signal to his people 
and they instantly rushed into the sea, seized the boat, 
and carried it, with Mr. Williams within, high up on the 
land. Here already a chapel had been erected and a 
considerable number of Christian worshippers gathered 
together through the instruction of one of their number, 
who had made frequent voyages in a little canoe to Sa- 
vaii and thereby gained a little knowledge with which to 
instruct his people. 

Continuing his voyage Mr. Williams visited Upolu, 
and there found that through acquaintance with the 



200 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

teachers on Savaii one hundred of its people had re- 
nounced idolatry and were earnestly desiring to obtain 
the instruction of a missionary. 

Arriving at last at Savaii he was joyfully welcomed 
by the chiefs and people, and found a chapel, and held 
several meetings, addressing audiences of over a thou- 
sand people. 

In the year 1835 the London Missionary Society sent 
six missionaries, five of whom were accompanied by their 
wives, to the Samoa Islands. From this time the pro- 
gress of the mission was rapid : the Bible was translated, 
schools and theological seminaries were formed, almost 
the entire population embraced Christianity, and many 
graduates of the schools went forth as foreign missiona- 
ries to the New Hebrides, the Gilbert group, and other 
neighboring islands. 

In 1844 Rev. Charles Hardie, with Rev. G. Turner — 
who in the previous year had been obliged to flee for his 
life from the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides — 
established a self-supporting boarding-school for higher 
education at Malua, on the island of Upolu. They pur- 
chased three hundred acres of land covered with wild 
jungle and bordering on a lagoon, erected buildings, and 
enrolled one hundred students, in classes of twenty-five, 
for a four years' course of study. With the aid of the 
students the land was cleared of brush and planted with 
"ten thousand breadfruit and cocoanut trees, thousands 
of bananas, and yams, taro, maize, manioc and sugar 
cane, and a road was made in circuit around the tract 
and shaded by the cocoanut palm." Besides cultivating 



SAMOA. 201 

the soil and catching fish from the lagoon the students 
learned useful mechanical arts. The produce of the 
land and the fish of the lagoons supplied all their wants. 
In this school pupils were received from the New Hebri- 
des, New Caledonia, and Savage Island, as well as from 
the Samoa Islands. The graduates of this school have 
become the teachers of the common schools, the pastors 
of churches, and foreign missionaries ; and here over 
2,000 teachers and native ministers have been trained. 
In the year 1891 ninety-five graduates of this school were 
acting as ordained pastors in the Samoa and other groups 
of islands. The Malua institution has been rated as 
foremost in importance of the missionary agencies in 
Samoa. 

Besides this school there is a Normal Training School 
at Leulumoenga ; five other schools are conducted by 
missionaries on Savaii and Upolu, and arrangements 
were about perfected in 1892 for the establishment of a 
central boarding-school for girls. 

The result of the work in these schools is that the 
number of native pastors in Samoa is increasing while 
the London Missionary Society refrains from appointing 
many more English missionaries for this group of islands. 
Some apprehension has been expressed lest the appoint- 
ment of new foreign missionaries for Samoa may be 
suspended before the natives have advanced sufficiently 
in knowledge and character to wisely manage their 
churches and religious enterprises. It is to be hoped 
that warning will be taken from the mistake made by 
the American Board in Hawaii 



202 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

In recent years the attention of the whole world has 
been drawn to Samoa because of the unhappy struggles 
of its people and foreign nations respecting its sovereign- 
ty. To understand these struggles it is necessary to 
glance at a long history of dissensions of the natives and 
encroachments on their rights by foreigners. From time 
immemorial there have been in Samoa intertribal disputes 
and wars in which it has been no difficult matter for 
foreigners to intervene for their own emolument. Thus 
a firm presided over by John Caesar Godeffroy, of Ger- 
many, artfully and by fraud obtained twenty-five thou- 
sand acres of the finest alluvial land of Samoa. Back of 
Apia they put ten thousand acres of this land into use, 
inclosed them partly with hedges of limes and other 
trees, intersected them with avenues of palms, and cul- 
tivated them with cotton, cacao, coffee, cocoanuts, pine- 
apples and other fruits. In process of time Godeffroy 
went into bankruptcy, owing $5, 000,000, and this 
Samoan estate passed into other hands, and was placed 
under the management of one Theodor Weber (Misi 
Ueba). Another firm, called "The Polynesian Land 
Company," obtained 300,000 acres on four islands. 
The result of this land-grabbing was that the poor natives 
were to a great extent dispossessed from their ancestral 
estates and from their means of a livelihood. 

To put an end to incessant disputes of the natives 
with each other and with the foreign traders the Samoan 
chiefs, in 1875, with the aid of Col. A. B. Steinberger, 
who had been sent by President Grant to secure a naval 
coaling station in Samoa, formed a written constitution 



SAMOA. 203 

of government and a code of laws; and in 1879, w * tn 
the aid of Sir A. H. Gordan and the German consul, 
established the "Municipality of Apia," the Americans 
in Samoa objecting. This municipality was an arrange- 
ment that Apia, the emporium of Samoa, should be 
governed by a Board consisting of the consuls and per- 
sons nominated, one apiece, by them. At about the 
same time a convention of commissioners of England, 
Germany and the United States was held at Washington, 
and an agreement partly made by these nations to mutu- 
ally respect each other's rights in Samoa. 

All would now have gone well with Samoa if there 
had not been a deeply laid plot of the German govern- 
ment in conjunction with the German residents at Apia 
to obtain possession of these islands. An opportunity 
for carrying out this scheme was afforded by the dis- 
agreement of the natives in the appointment of their 
king. According to Samoan custom, the electors of the 
king were the "Taimura," a senate of seven chiefs 
chosen every two years by the other chiefs and repre- 
senting the different districts, and the suffrages were 
given in the form of names or titles. A chief by the 
name of Laupepa (sheet of paper), a man of excellent 
character, who had been educated for the Christian 
ministry, received three names, Malietoa, Natoaitele, 
and Tamasoalii ; another chief, Tamasese, obtained the 
title Tuiana ; and another, Mataafa, the title Tuiata. 
Laupepa was therefore declared king, and Tamasese and 
Mataafa vice-kings. 

The German firm now under the lead of Mr. Weber 



204 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

made a stand against Laupepa and in favor of Tama- 
sese, and trumped up demands against Laupepa for 
$1,000 on account of alleged disrespect of natives to the 
German nation, and of $ 12,000 for cocoanuts stolen by- 
famishing natives from the German plantations. The 
German consul combined with Mr. Weber in making 
these demands and expelled Laupepa from his residence 
in Apia. Five German war vessels were brought to 
enforce the demands, and they hoisted the flag of Tama- 
sese and declared him king. 

Laupepa, being of peacable disposition, readily com- 
plied with advice given by the American and British 
consuls to avoid war, and trusted promises made by 
them to restore his rights. At length from a hiding- 
place in the forest he sent a message to the consuls, 
reminding them of their promises, and calling upon 
them to redeem them and to cause the lives and liberties 
of his people to be respected. Finally, to prevent blood- 
shed, he delivered himself to the German war-vessels, 
and with touching farewells to his people was conveyed 
away, first to Australia, then to Cape Town, then to 
Germany, and finally to Jaluit, a low lagoon island of 
the Marshall group, and there put on shore and kept on 
coarse fare of beef, tea, and biscuit. After his deporta- 
tion the chief Mataafa gathered six hundred troops in 
the forest and fought several desperate battles against 
Tamesese, who was in a fort under the protection of the 
Germans. German marines were now sent to enforce a 
disarmament of Mataafa. A combat ensued, and twen- 
ty Germans were killed and thirty wounded. The Ger- 



SAMOA. 205 

mans now declared war against Samoa, placed Apia 
under martial law, suppressed the English newspaper, 
imprisoned several English and American residents, and 
bombarded some villages. 

This high-handed course of Germany excited intense 
indignation in the Samoa Islands and also in England 
and the United States. The American consul at Apia, 
Harold Marsh Sewall, and the trader, Moors, sent forci- 
ble despatches about the state of affairs to Washington, 
and finally went thither themselves to give fuller informa- 
tion. The result was that the government at Washing- 
ton telegraphed to Minister Pendleton to notify the 
German minister of Foreign Affairs "that the United 
States expected that nothing would be done to impair 
their rights under their existing treaty with Samoa." 
Thereupon Count Bismarck telegraphed to the German 
consul at Apia that "annexation was impracticable, on 
account of the diplomatic agreement with England and 
the United States." 

These contentions about Samoa were now hurried to 
a settlement by a hurricane that wrecked all but one of 
seven war-ships of Germany, the United States and 
England that were congregated at Apia to stand guard 
over the interests of their respective countries. Of these 
ships three were American, the Nipsic, the Vandalia, and 
the Trenton ; three German, the Adler, the Eber, and 
the Olga ; one British, the Calliope ; and there were also 
in the Apia harbor six merchantmen and nine smaller 
craft. It was considered unsafe for more than four ships 
to be anchored in this harbor at one time ; and for this 



206 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

reason two of the war-ships, the Trenton and Vandalia, 
had taken their position just outside of the reef. 

The extreme peril of remaining in this harbor when a 
northerly storm was blowing into it was well known ; 
and it was the custom of sea-faring men, at the first 
indications of such a storm, to put to sea and seek 
shelter in the lee of the islands. A captain of a smaller 
vessel once, when unable to get away at such a time, 
scuttled and sank his vessel in shoal water as the only 
method of saving her, and after the hurricane raised her 
again. During the previous month a storm had blown 
from the north and the Eber had barely been rescued by 
a hawser from the Olga, and the ship Constitution and 
a small vessel, the Tamesese, had been wrecked. But 
now these war-ships, like angry bull dogs, were obliv- 
ious to every thing but their quarrels with each other, 
and remained at Apia notwithstanding sure indications 
of a coming tempest. 

The first sign of the storm was the falling of the 
barometer to 29 11' at 2 p. m., on March 15, 1889. At 
night-fall on this day the heavens to the north grew 
black, and heavy rain began to fall. At midnight a 
cyclone was blowing and mountain waves were rushing 
into the small harbor and, like vast behemoths, spring- 
ing upon the ships and almost wrenching them from 
their moorings. The ships steamed with the utmost 
power of their machinery to the aid of their anchor- 
cables, but steadily drifted towards the reefs. Before 
morning the Eber struck twice on the reef and then 
sank, stern foremost, carrying down all of her eighty 



SAMOA. 207 

men but four, who were rescued by the very natives with 
whom they had been at war. At seven a. m. the Nip- 
sic fortunately drove upon the sand beach, losing only a 
few of her men. At eight a. m. the Adler drifted near 
the reef; but the captain, when she was about to strike, 
watched for the coming of a mountain wave, suddenly 
slipped his cables, and his ship was lifted high on the 
reef and laid over on her beam ends, with a loss of twen- 
ty of her men. The remainder of her crew clung many 
hours to her wreck, till they were heroically rescued by 
the Samoans. At nine a. m. the Trenton and the Cal- 
liope were about coming into collision with each other 
when the captain of the latter, as the only means of 
safety, slipped his cables, put on all possible steam and 
slowly worked to sea. The Americans near by on the 
doomed ship Trenton gallantly cheered as this ship 
almost imperceptibly worked her way against the torna- 
do. The Trenton now, with fires gone out, her rudder 
and propeller gone and all her anchor-cables but one 
broken, was drifting on to the reef when her captain set 
storm sails, slipped his cable, and endeavored to drive 
her on the beach. Just before this the Vandalia had 
struck the reef and sunk, and most of her crew had 
climbed to her masts, and now the Trenton, ' ' as 
unmanageable as a wild mustang," drove against these 
masts and shook off many of the men, while some of 
them clambered on her decks. Forty-three men were 
drowned in this way and by the sinking of the Vandalia. 
But the Trenton continued on her course, and finally 
settled in shoal water, with a loss of only one of her 450 



208 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

men. The Olga now loosed from her moorings, and 
with all steam on safely reached the sand beach. All 
the merchantmen and smaller craft in the harbor were 
wrecked. It was afterwards ascertained that this hurri- 
cane extended more than 1,200 miles, and destroyed 
three ships in the Hervey Islands. 

The news of this hurricane made a profound impres- 
sion all over the world ; and Germany, England and the 
United States, awe-struck, as if a higher Power had in- 
tervened against their rapacity for the islands of the poor 
Samoans, hastened to settle their disputes by an interna- 
tional conference at Berlin. The result of the conference 
was that Germany brought Malietoa back to Samoa, and 
he was reinstated as king. The contending nations 
agreed to respect the autonomy of Samoa, and provided 
for the appointment of a Land Commission to settle land 
claims, and of a Supreme Judge to be elected by the 
treaty powers or, in case they should fail to agree, by the 
king of Norway and Sweden. This judge should adju- 
dicate questions arising between the treaty nations or 
between the natives and foreigners. It was also ar- 
ranged that the government of Samoa should be carried 
on by a senate, called Taimura, consisting of the king, 
vice-king, and the chiefs of the different tribes, and by a 
house of representatives, called the Faipule, elected by 
the people. A Swedish jurist, O. K. W. von Ceder- 
crantz, was appointed Chief Justice, at a salary of $6,000 
per annum, a German, Baron Von Pilsach, President of 
the Municipal Council, at a salary of $5,000, and a 
Commission sent out to settle land-claims at an aggre- 



SAMOA. 209 

gate annual expense of $15,000, while King Malietoa 
had a nominal salary of only $1,000, which he was un- 
able to wholly collect. Part of the customs receipts of 
Apia were assigned for payment of the salary of the 
President. A capitation tax of one dollar per annum 
was imposed on each man, woman and child in Samoa 
to raise money to pay the other salaries and to defray 
the expenses of bridge-building, road-repairing, and all 
other public works. 

The Samoans led such free and easy lives, " plucking 
their food from trees, sheltering themselves with banana- 
leaf thatch, and clothing themselves with bark cloth/' 
that they did not see the necessity of taxes, nor were able 
to give more for their payment than "small contribu- 
tions of taro, pigs, cocoanuts and chickens, " and soon 
revolted against the tripartite government. When Malie- 
toa was reinstated his old companion, Mataafa, met him 
in a friendly way, and sought to engage his help to 
throw off this expensive foreign government, but found 
that the Samoan king could do no more than a child 
against the great treaty powers. He then withdrew from 
him and became decidedly hostile, encamping with his 
warriors at Malie, two miles from Apia. Finally, on the 
seventh and eighth of July, 1893, he attacked the gov- 
ernment troops and was repulsed. Three ships of the 
joint protectorate then steamed to the place of conflict 
and with threats of bombardment compelled him and his 
chiefs to deliver themselves up to them, and in a few 
days he and ten of his chiefs were deported to the 
Marshall Islands, twenty-four of his followers were sen- 



210 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

tenced to three years of penal labor, and eighty-seven 
fined. 

This banishment and punishment of the revolting 
chiefs did not stop the rebellion, and consequently the 
high officials, Cedercrantz and Pilsach, seeing that they 
could accomplish no good, but rather were exciting the 
natives to war by imposing the burden of their own sup- 
port upon them, resigned, and H. C. Ide, of Vermont, 
U. S. A. , was sent out as Chief Justice, and Mr. Schmidt, 
a German resident of Samoa, made President. Judge 
Ide began his career in Samoa by inviting seventeen of 
the chiefs to a friendly conference, and imprisoning 
them, and putting them to work with convicts on the 
road, because they refused to pay the capitation taxes. 
The natives were enraged at this ignominious treatment 
of their chiefs, which they claimed was a violation of an 
agreement for safe conduct, and they flew to arms. 
They expressed a desire that Malietoa should continue to 
be their king, but opposition to the burdensome foreign 
government, and with nightly prayers and psalm-singing 
marched against the forces of the king. They fought 
a fierce and indecisive battle, and by the last accounts 
were still making war. 

Thus the tripartite protectorate of Samoa, which was 
not designed so much to protect the Samoans or pro- 
mote their welfare as to protect the respective interests of 
the great contracting nations from each others rapacity, 
has been imposed for pecuniary support on the poor 
Samoans, and has only maddened them to deplorable 
war against their king. The greatest boon the Samoans 



SAMOA. 211 

could receive would be to be delivered from these pro- 
tectors and permitted to govern themselves. 

As may be supposed, the turmoils in Samoa have had 
a sad influence on the churches and powerfully operated 
to reduce the people to their former barbarism. Yet it 
is a remarkable fact that only one pupil of the Malua In- 
stitute has relinquished his studies to engage in these 
wars, and that the various Home and Foreign Mission 
enterprises of the churches have continued through all 
the dissensions. The patience of the Samoans in endur- 
ing the long series of outrages which they suffered before 
resorting to war, their comparatively humane method of 
conducting the war, and their magnanimity in rescuing 
the shipwrecked Germans, are certainly very creditable to 
a people just emerging from paganism and rudely tram- 
pled upon by wealthy and intelligent races. 

The whole population of the Samoa Islands may 
now be styled as nominally Christian. On the largest 
islands there are probably not fifty families that fail to 
observe family worship ; and the genuineness of their 
piety is shown by their benevolence and missionary en- 
terprise. In 1890, besides supporting the gospel at 
home they sent $9,000 as a thank-offering to the London 
Missionary Society for foreign mission work. But many 
years of religious culture and development of the educa- 
tional institutions, now organized, are needed to estab- 
lish the churches on stable foundations and best promote 
their mission enterprises for the neighboring islands. 

In the year 1897 the Tripartite Government, at the 
request of a majority of the Samoan chiefs, brought back 



212 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

from Jaluit of the Marshall group the exiled chief, Mataafa. 
This chief had been won over by kind treatment during 
his four years' exile, to favor the ascendancy of the Ger- 
mans. A few months after his return, King Malietoa 
died, having contracted typhoid fever, and the old struggle 
for the throne was renewed. The King was to be elected 
by representatives of the various districts. There were 
three candidates, and of these Mataafa received the 
majority of the votes, as he was a favorite of the people, 
and a partisan of the Germans and Roman Catholics. 
According to the Constitution of the Tripartite Govern- 
ment the returns of the elections were to be passed upon 
by the Chief Justice, who at that time was Judge William 
Chambers of the United States. He ruled that Mataafa, 
as previously a rebel, and as barred by a previous stipula- 
tion of Germany, was ineligible, and that Tanumafili, a son 
of Malietoa, was to be accepted as King. 

The German Consul, Mr. Rose, assured Mataafa that 
the stipulation of Germany was not binding, being a mere 
matter of the past, and Mataafa, thereby emboldened, 
marched with five thousand warriors to attack Tanumafili 
who with one thousand warriors was encamped near Apia. 
The chiefs of Mataafa then went into Tanumafili' s army 
and won over a third of his troops. A combat ensued, in 
which Tanumafili was defeated, and he fled to Tutuila. 
Mataafa's men then pillaged Apia, and under the lead of 
Roman Catholics destroyed the Foreign Protestant Church 
at that place. The British and American warships 
bombarded his army, landed forces, and finally brought 
back Tanumafili and installed him as King. 



SAMOA. 213 

The Powers then sent a Joint Commission to investigate 
and determine what should be done. The Commission 
reported that the continuance of the Tripartite Govern- 
ment and of the Kingship was undesirable, and recom- 
mended that the controversies between the Powers should 
be submitted for arbitration to King Oscar of Sweden and 
Norway. Great Britain had waived her claims, in con_ 
sideration of compensation by Germany in Africa and the 
Solomon Islands. King Oscar finally decided that Samoa 
should be divided ; the portion west of the Meridian 1 7 1 ° 
East Longitude to belong to Germany, and the portion 
east of that Meridian to belong to the United States. 

The western part of the group was apportioned to 
Germany, because in it Germans owned extensive planta- 
tions and were conducting valuable mercantile establish- 
ments ; the eastern part was apportioned to the United 
States, because that country had claims on the Pangopango 
Harbor. The grounds for these claims were the facts, 
that the United States had secured in 187 1 from the chiefs 
of Tutuila the exclusive right for a coaling station at that 
harbor, that in 1873 a Samoan chief, Mamea, had gone as 
a representative of the other chiefs to Washington, and 
negotiated an American Protectorate over Tutuila, and 
that during 1891 to 1892 the United States had purchased 
of the Tutuila chiefs two tracts of land ont he shores of 
that harbor and the island at its entrance. 

German Samoa is 1,250 square miles in area. It con- 
sists of the islands Upolu and Savaii, and the adjacent 
islets. One-third of its area is adapted to agriculture, and 
can be made to produce in abundance and in perfection 



214 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

all the fruits of the Tropics. Most of the land belongs to 
the natives, and is inalienable ; but the natives can lease 
portions of it, by special consent of the Government, for 
periods of forty years. Several thousand acres were ac- 
quired by the foreigners before the annexation, and these 
the foreigners are allowed to sell. 

In 1905 the exports of German Samoa were worth 
$482,976. They consisted of copra $471,116, cacao 
$7,202, coffee $397, tobacco $1,225, kava $1,568, 
cocoanuts $552, and pineapples $916. The exports will 
be hereafter greatly increased. A million acres of cocoanut 
and cacao trees, planted by natives, through Government 
compulsion, on their own inalienable lands, are just coming 
into bearing, several plantations of rubber, not yet pro- 
ductive, are very promising, and hardly half of the 
cultivable area has yet been utilized. 

German Samoa is ruled by a Governor and Supreme 
Judge appointed by Germany. As far as feasible, the 
Government is administered by the old Samoan methods. 
Sales of intoxicating liquors to the natives are prohibited 
but not to foreigners. 

In 1905 the population of German Samoa was 32,932. 
It consisted of 32,312 natives, 300 half-castes, and 320 
whites. The number of the adherents of the London 
Mission was 19,852, of the Wesleyan Mission 6,000, of 
the Roman Catholic Mission 1,000. 

In 1903 the volcano of Savaii, which had been for a 
hundred years inactive, broke forth, and for five months 
ejected molten lava. In August 1905 there was another 
eruption, this time fifteen miles east of the previous one. 



SAMOA. 215 

Torrents of lava filled ravkies five hundred feet deep, over- 
flowed twenty thousand acres of land, destroyed three 
villages, and finally reached the ocean and formed con- 
siderable new land. Another eruption occurred in 
November, 1907. 

The aggregate area of the islands of American Samoa is 
only sixty square miles, and very little of it is of any value 
for agricultural purposes. But American Samoa is of great 
value because of its Pangopango Harbor, situated on the 
southern side of the island, Tutuila. As this island lies at 
the centre of the northern border of the vast archipelago 
of island groups, which, with little intermediate ocean 
areas, stretches from the Marquesas to Asia, its harbor is 
in an important strategic position for the naval and com- 
mercial control of the South Pacific Ocean. 

This harbor is of great value, also, because of the pro- 
tection it affords from storms. Unlike Apia Harbor, it 
does not lie open to the northern hurricanes, but is 
completely land-locked by surrounding mountains, a 
thousand feet high, and an island at its entrance. The 
result is that during the fiercest storms its waters are as 
smooth as a mill-pond. Except at two points, there is 
between its shores and the mountains very little level land. 
At one of these points, near the entrance, the United 
States has constructed a steel pier, docks, and immense 
coal sheds. 

Tutuila is the most beautiful of the Samoan Islands. 
Its eastern portion, comprising two-thirds of its area, is 
very picturesque, but, except along its shores where 
cocoanuts thrive, it is too rugged for agriculture. In the 



2l6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

western portion there are, on the south, twenty-five 
thousand acres of level, well-watered, fertile land, and, at 
Leone, there is a fairly good anchorage. Near this island 
on the south-east is the islet, Aunu'u, and further south- 
east the Manua Group, consisting of three islands, Ta'u, 
Olosega, and Ofu, and still further south-east is the un- 
inhabited atoll, Rose, so named by its discoverer, Frey- 
cinet, after his wife. 

The United States deferred the proclamation of its 
sovereignty ovei Eastern Samoa until its inhabitants should 
accept it ; for they were capable of judging rightly of the 
matter. To secure their acceptance, Benjamin Tilley was 
sent thither, as Commander of the U. S. A. ship, Abarenda, 
under appointment to be their first Governor. On 
arriving at Tutuila he explained to the chiefs of that 
island the proposed annexation, and they cordially wel- 
comed the Government by the United States. At Manua 
the Tut Manua (King) appointed a fono (meeting) in 
which to give his reply. The fono was opened by prayers 
and singing conducted by the Tut Manua himself. Then 
the Tut Manua handed Commander Tilley a document, 
accepting gracefully for himself and his people the 
sovereignty and protection of the United States. Com- 
mander Tilley then returned to Pangopango Harbor, and 
there proclaimed the sovereignty of the United States over 
Tutuila, Aunu'u, Manua, and Rose. A salute was then 
fired by the Abarenda and a German warship that had gone 
thither to participate in the ceremony ; and " for two days 
the natives indulged in dances, feasts, and sports, and ate 
so much pig that it seemed a wonder they survived." 



SAMOA. 217 

The Government of American Samoa is administered 
by officials similar to those of German Samoa, and with 
similar laws concerning the disposition of land and the 
prohibition of sales of intoxicants to natives. Sales of 
liquors to foreigners are forbidden, nor are foreigners 
allowed to import liquors for themselves without written 
permission from the Governor. 

In 1905 the population of American Samoa was 6,040. 
It consisted of 5,900 natives, 70 half-castes and 70 whites. 
The exports were worth #7 1 ,644. They consisted of copra, 
#60,516, curios #1,554, and cocoa #574. There were 
5,396 adherents of Evangelical Churches, 469 Roman 
Catholics, and 170 Mormons. 

Under both the German and the American Govern- 
ments the condition of the Samoans is improving. During 
the previous long period of warfare there was such in- 
security of property that they neglected the cultivation of 
their lands, indolently subsisting on the spontaneous 
products of their fruit trees and going in their ancient 
semi-undress. It was remarked that the men in Apia, 
four hundred in number, did not perform a half day's 
work per month. They were also demoralized by the 
barbarities of the wars, and injured in health by exposure 
to inclement weather while encamping in the mountains. 
"What the missionaries built up the wars broke down." 
The death rate of the natives was greater than their birth- 
rate, though previously their population had been in- 
creasing. Now, in peace, and under strong, wise and 
benign Governments, they are becoming more industrious, 
prosperous and moral, and are increasing in number. So 



21 8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

extensively have they been induced to cultivate their lands 
that the foreign residents in German Samoa remark that 
the natives will in a few years be in more affluent circum- 
stances than are any other tribes on the Pacific Islands. 

In both American and German Samoa nearly all the 
churches are under the care of native pastors, and for this 
reason the missionaries do little in the way of preaching, 
and are devoting their attention to primary schools, and to 
several noble institutions for higher education, thus laying 
the foundation for a permanent Christian civilization. 
There are in the group two hundred primary schools, in 
which eight thousand boys and girls are receiving instruc- 
tion. From these schools the best pupils are promoted to 
high schools, or to boarding-schools, and from the latter 
schools those proposing to become teachers, ministers or 
foreign missionaries are sent to the Malua Training Insti- 
tution. The London Mission is conducting on Upolu, 
besides this Malua Institute, a Girls' Boarding School, and 
a Boys' High School, on Savaii a High School, and on 
Tutuila the Faasamani Boys' Boarding School, and the 
Girls' Atauloma High School. 

Throughout Samoa (German and American) " religion 
is respectability ; all are church-goers ; in almost every 
home family worship is conducted. It would be difficult 
for the natives to be more religious (outwardly). They 
display much formality, as must be expected of com- 
munities that formerly were simply like higher animals, 
but they are gaining insight into spiritual things." ' 

It would be difficult also to find in civilized countries a 

1 Rev. E. N. Hawker, L. M. S. missionary at Tutuila. 



SAMOA. 219 

community that, in proportion to its population, is pro- 
ducing as many Christian workers and sending forth as 
many foreign missionaries. The aggregate native and 
half-caste population of both American and German 
Samoa is 38,722, the number of native ordained ministers 
at work in the group is 180, the number of native mis- 
sionaries laboring in other groups is 70. Of the latte r48 
are in New Guinea, 10 in the Gilbert Islands, and 12 in 
the Tokelau and Ellice Groups. The native missionaries 
have heroically performed pioneer work among the savages 
of other groups and several of them have suffered 
martyrdom. 

Important as is this group by its strategic position for 
controlling the naval and commercial operations in the 
South Seas, it is more important as a radiating centre of 
missionary influences for promoting Christian civilization 
in that part of the Pacific. 



220 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC 



CHAPTER XI. 

MICRONESIA. 

Micronesia, as its name imports, consists of numer- 
ous little islands, which are situated in the far western 
part of the Pacific, and classified as the Gilbert, Mar- 
shall, Caroline and Ladrone groups. Voyaging south- 
west 2, 500 miles from Hawaii we come to the eastern 
group of this Archipelago, the Gilbert Islands ; so named 
after Capt. Gilbert, who went thither in 1788, and whose 
fellow-voyager, Capt. Marshall, at the same time gave 
the name Marshall Islands to the group near by on the 
north. The Gilbert Islands lie on both sides of the 
equator, between 3 north and 30 south. Their appear- 
ance to one approaching them is of plumes of cocoanuts 
apparently growing out of the ocean ; on going nearer a 
white sand beach is to be seen and brown huts nestling 
in shrubbery, and beyond through the trees glimpses 
may be caught of still waters of lagoons ; for these isl- 
ands are low coral atolls. They consist of strips of reef, 
varying from a few yards to twenty miles in length, and 
from a few feet to half a mile in breadth, covered with 
sand and encircling lagoons, appearing with their bright 
vegetation "like green beads" on the blue expanse of 
the ocean. The atoll Apaiang has islets averaging a 
quarter of a mile broad, the largest of which is twenty- 
three miles long ; and this atoll encloses a lagoon eigh- 



MICRONESIA. 221 

teen miles long, six miles wide, and a hundred feet deep. 
The islets of Apemama stretch along in a semicircular 
form twenty-five miles, and average half a mile in breadth. 
Those of Tapiteuea extend thirty-three miles, and cover 
an area of six square miles. The largest, most fertile, 
and most populous atoll of this group is Butaritari at the 
north. The other atolls, to the south, have little fertil- 
ity of soil, and only twelve species of plants, of which 
only the cocoanut and the pandanus yield food for the 
inhabitants. 

These atolls are the ' ' tiny deserts of the Pacific ;" 
for they are situated in the region of the least rains, in 
the "doldrums," where calms and variable winds pre- 
vail, and they have so little elevation above the ocean, 
generally only about five feet, that they do not catch the 
rain-clouds that pass over them. Though the cocoanut- 
tree can grow even where its roots are washed by the 
briny waters of the ocean, it does not thrive well where 
there is little rain, here yielding only six or eight nuts to 
a tree, and these only two or three inches in diameter ; 
while where much rain falls it yields from 200 to 300 
nuts, and these of the largest size. 

But the poorest cocoanut-trees yield considerable 
food by the flow of sap from their flower-stalks. The 
islanders here do not live so much on the nuts as on this 
sap. Before the nuts form they cut off the flower-stalks, 
and with large shells as containers catch the sap that drips 
from the pruned stems, emptying the shells twice a day. 
When this sap is kept several days it becomes an intoxi- 
cating drink, but when fresh it is healthful and nutri- 



222 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

tious. One cocoanut-tree will feed a man ; and a grove 
of cocoanut-trees is as valuable to a family of natives as 
a herd of milch cows to a Bedouin tribe in Arabia. 

The poor provision afforded by these trees is supple- 
mented by the kind ocean, which pours over the reefs 
and into the lagoons profuse supplies of fish, and with 
these most beautiful decorations of shells, corals, and 
marine vegetation. The value of these lagoons has been 
much appreciated by the Hawaiian missionaries, who 
have compared them with the small fish-ponds construct- 
ed with great labor in their islands. Here by the work 
of nature better fish-ponds have been made. The Sea of 
Galilee did not yield more fish, nor would a thousand 
acres of tropical forest yield more food, than these natu- 
ral fish-ponds. 

Yet seasons of famine sometimes prevail in these 
islands, when long-continued storms prevent fishing, or 
war causes destruction of trees. Mr. E. Bailey, the del- 
egate of the Hawaiian Board, reported that during his 
visit to these islands several natives died of starvation. 
The American missionaries who have resided here have 
not been able to keep in good health while living on the 
poor fare of the natives, just as the trees of their country 
will not thrive in the hot sands and briny waters of these 
islands ; and these missionaries have been obliged to im- 
port nearly all their food, as well as their other supplies, 
as though they were living on board of ships. 

Northwest of this group, like an extension of it, is 
the Marshall group, consisting of two nearly parallel 
chains of atolls, from ioo to 300 miles apart, the eastern 




Heathen Micronesian Woman. 




Heathen Micronesians. 



MICRONESIA. 223 

known as the Ratak, the western as the Ralik, Islands. 
In each of these chains of islands are about sixteen atolls, 
measuring from two to fifty miles in circumference. One 
of these atolls, Ebon (A-bone), is a ring-reef of twenty- 
five miles' circumference, broken into eighteen islets, the 
largest six miles long and half a mile wide. The great- 
est and most populous atoll is Arno, the most important 
Jaluij, which, on account of its excellent anchorage for 
ships, has been made the commercial emporium of the 
group. This island has been called the "Naturalist's 
Paradise;" for here on a reef-floor 200 feet broad and 
many miles in length, covered with only a few inches' 
depth of water, one may gather the choicest of shells, the 
" Orange Cowries," worth $50 a pair, the most beautiful 
of corals, and innumerable other rare curiosities. 

In the Marshall group there is more rain than in the 
Gilbert Islands, and therefore more various and abun- 
dant vegetation. Here the trunks of the trees are partly 
covered with bright green moss and ferns, and here 
breadfruit and jackfruit trees are found. In Mille some 
of the breadfruit trees measure twelve feet in diameter 
four feet above the ground, and are eighty feet in height. 
A few of these trees would yield more food than many 
acres of wheat and corn. 

In the centre of these islands, as also in the Mort- 
lock group, there are depressions in which fresh water is 
found ; and here taro, arrow-root, and in some places 
bananas, are cultivated, also a caladium, the ape of Ha- 
waii, which has leaves measuring five feet by three, and 
rising on their stems twelve feet high. 



224 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Voyaging on westward from the Marshall group we 
come to the Caroline Islands, so named by the Spanish 
Admiral Lazeano, in 1686, in honor of the royal consort 
of Charles II. ; and first we arrive at Kusaie, an island of 
volcanic formation, 2, 200 feet in height, covered from its 
beach to the summits of its mountains with dense vegeta- 
tion. On this island rain is so abundant that everywhere 
there is a splendid jungle of palms, tree-ferns and giant 
forest trees, and the trunks of the trees are covered with 
moss and wreathed with climbing ferns and blooming 
vines. The vegetation does not stop at the shore, but 
reaches out in the shoal waters of the bays in the form 
of great mangrove-trees, which grow only in salt water. 
To those coming from the low coral atolls the beauty of 
this island and of Ponape is very striking. For this rea- 
son these islands have been called "The Gems of the 
Pacific." Kusaie has fringing reefs that are scarcely 
anywhere separated from the shore. 

West of Kusaie are two islands of coral formation, 
Pingelap and Mokil, which rise twenty feet in height 
above the ocean, and resemble the Marshall Islands 
in their vegetation ; and a little further west is Pona- 
pe, an island, like Kusaie, of volcanic formation, and 
having mountains 2,858 feet in height. This island has 
barrier reefs separated from the land by from two to 
eight miles of water. In the waters thus enclosed the 
largest ships might sail entirely around it. There are 
also twelve small islands, the "miniatures of Ponape," 
in these enclosed waters, and fifteen islets, many of them 
of coral formation, in the barrier reef. This reef mea- 



MICRONESIA. 225 

sures eighty miles in circumference and the main island 
sixty miles. On the west of Ponape is the small island, 
Pakin, having forty inhabitants, and on the southwest 
the small Ant Islands. Ponape has a fine harbor on the 
east, called Owa, which is completely land-locked ; near 
by is the Metalanim Harbor, which has within it a re- 
markable peak of prismatic basaltic rocks, called Sugar- 
loaf ; and on the northwest is the Kenan Harbor, which 
is faced by a great precipice of basaltic rocks ; and on 
the south the Kiti Harbor, at the mouth of the Ran-Kiti 
River. 

The flora of Ponape is as rich as that of Kusaie. 
Here is found the ivory palm, which has a fruit re- 
sembling ivory, and rises with a trunk twelve inches 
thick to a height of eighty feet. Mr. E. Bailey says, 
"Its crown of immense graceful fronds would be the 
despair of any green-house in the world. I have seen 
many graceful palms, but none comparable to this." 
Here are also banyan trees, which are said to begin their 
growth from seeds lodged by birds high up on trees, and 
which spread over extensive regions, sending down innu- 
merable aerial roots. Mr. Bailey saw one of these trees 
beginning its growth from the lofty top of a breadfruit 
tree, which it doubtless in a few years destroyed. An- 
other remarkable tree is the durion, which has been 
imported from Yap, and grows to the height of seventy 
feet, and is loaded with pear-shaped fruit nine inches in 
length and five in thickness, most offensive in odor and 
most delicious in taste. The English scientist, Mr. 
Wallace, has called it "The King of Fruits," and has 



226 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

remarked that it is worth a journey across the ocean to 
taste it. 

As might be supposed, the scenery of Ponape is very 
delightful. Rev. E. Doane has said of his home on this 
island, "It is built in a wonderfully beautiful spot, 
where from all sides I have views of almost enchanting 
loveliness — of mountains and valleys, the lagoon with its 
wonderful colors in the water, the long line of snowy, 
rolling, roaring breakers, and beyond that the great blue 
ocean always beautiful." One of the missionary dele- 
gates from Hawaii has written, * ' A visit to this island is 
like wandering in fairy land. The verdure is excessive. 
We cannot get through the bush except along paths. 
The people carry knives to cut their way. Breadfruit, 
oranges, taro, bananas, pine-apples, papaias, arrow-root, 
and sago-palms abound, also cheremoias, guavas, man- 
gos, and other tropical fruits. " 

In this same Caroline group, 300 miles southwest 
from Ponape, are the Mortlock Islands, named after 
Capt. Mortlock, of the ship Young William, who discov- 
ered them in 1793. The Mortlocks consist of three 
atolls : Satoan, which has sixty islets around its lagoon, 
Etol, which has many islets, and Lukunor. Mr. Bailey 
remarks of these islands that their soil is the most fertile 
that he saw in Micronesia, and their inhabitants the 
richest ; but they are so low that they have sadly suffered 
from overflows of the ocean. In 1874 a hurricane drove 
great waves over the Lukunor Island and destroyed the 
breadfruit trees, and many of the natives died of starva- 
tion. 



MICRONESIA. 227 

Two hundred miles northwest of the Mortlocks is 
Ruk (Hogolu) which has a lagoon 100 by forty miles in 
extent, surrounded by ten large islands, some of them 
300 feet in height, all very fertile and abounding in fruit 
and vegetables. The population of Ruk alone is 12,000. 
Further on northwest are numerous atolls and two more 
high islands ; for, as has been beautifully remarked, this 
whole region "is studded with ocean gems, as if to 
mirror the starry sky above." 

The climate of all Micronesia is probably the mildest 
in the world ; too mild to be wholly enjoyable. Living 
here is like living near a furnace ; for here are brewed 
the hot airs and vapors that are swept by westerly winds 
to the northwest coast of America, and which there 
moderate the cold and yield copious rains. The heat 
here is not excessive, but is too unvarying for comfort, 
hardly changing more than twelve degrees in a year, 
ranging from 75 to 87 Fahrenheit ; a climate like that to 
which the fabled Lotus-eaters went, where 

" It seemed always afternoon ; 
All round the coast the languid air did swoon, 
Breathing like one that had a weary dream." 

During the months from October to May the north- 
east Trade Winds oscillate south, and blow over the 
northern part of this Archipelago ; and during the rest 
of the year the westerly winds prevail, with occasional 
heavy gales, and bring much rain to the high islands but 
little to the coral islands, that reach up no mountains to 
seize the treasures of the clouds. 

It would seem that islands like these, in the full sweep 



228 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

of the ocean winds and currents, would be very healthy 
places of residence ; but, strange to say, malaria prevails 
in some of them. It is developed on the high islands 
from the decaying vegetation in the swamps under the 
mangrove trees, and on some of the low islands because 
perhaps in some places the tides do not flow in and out 
the lagoons with sufficient force to keep them pure. 
Many American missionaries have here fallen victims to 
malaria as well as to the enervating climate ; about as 
many as in other groups have been killed by the savages. 

The population of Micronesia has been estimated at 
80,000 ; consisting of 25,000 in the Gilbert group, 15,000 
in the Marshall group, 5,000 in Ponape and its adjacent 
islands, 4,000 in the Mortlock Islands, 12,000 in Ruk, 
and 19,000 in the islands further west. Probably the 
population has greatly diminished since this estimate was 
made; as that of Kusaie was estimated at 1,500 forty 
years ago and now is only 400. It is remarkable that in 
the most barren islands, the Gilberts, the population is 
the densest, there being in Butaritari 6,000 inhabitants to 
an area of six square miles, 1,000 to a square mile, and 
in the other islands of this group about the same propor- 
tion. 

The Micronesians are a mixed race, derived from 
Polynesians, Papuans, and Mongolians. In the Gilbert 
and Marshall Islands the Polynesian element predomi- 
nates ; in the Caroline Islands ''occasionally the oblique 
Mongolian eye is noticed," and features of real beauty 
are sometimes seen. The languages of the natives are 
distinct in different groups, and yet sufficiently similar to 



MICRONESIA. 229 

indicate a common origin. In the eastern part of the 
Archipelago the syllables of the words are generally open, 
in the western closed syllables abound. 

Few people in the world give appearance of greater 
poverty and degradation than these isolated races ; espe- 
cially is this true of the Gilbert Islanders. In their 
perpetually warm climate they need little clothing, and 
wear little. The Gilbert men formerly wore none, and 
the women wore only a fringed skirt ten or twelve inches 
in breadth. Says Mr. E. Bailey, "They considered 
clothing a badge of shame, and were as unconscious of 
their nakedness as cattle." In the other Micronesian 
islands the men wore skirts twenty-five or thirty inches 
broad, and the women two mats, each a yard square, 
belted at the waist. 

The Gilbert Islanders dressed their hair to stand 
straight out at great length in every direction, "a fash- 
ion by which they had some protection from the sun. " 
The Marshall Islanders tied their hair in knots on the 
tops of their heads, and ornamented it with feathers and 
flowers. The Mortlock men wore their hair in rolls on 
the back of their necks, and the women let it fall in 
ringlets on each side of the face ; making their appear- 
ance "decidedly comely." In most of these islands a 
curious custom prevails of slitting the lobe of the ear 
and stretching it so as to make an aperture eight inches 
long, in which a cylinder of leaf or tortoise shell is 
placed. In this cylinder ornaments and valuables are 
carried, sometimes two or three pounds' weight to each 
ear. 



230 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

The Micronesians have not clung to their little is- 
lands, like echinoderms to reefs and limpets to rocks, but 
have been ever voyaging to and fro on their lagoons and 
far out on the ocean. Where large trees abound they 
have easily made "dug-outs/' and by binding wide 
boards together considerable-sized canoes ; but in the 
Gilbert Islands, where the only trees are the cocoanut 
and pandanus, their only resource has been to sew 
together with sinnet small strips of cocoanut wood and 
thus make canoes; and yet in the frail canoes thus 
constructed they fearlessly venture over the greatest 
waves of the ocean, as the Tartars ride the wildest 
steeds of the desert. 

The Marshall Islanders boldly go 300 and even 500 
miles to other groups, guiding themselves by the stars. 
Capt. Gillett of the Morning Star once found a compa- 
ny of these natives in a canoe beating their way home 
300 miles against a head wind, and gave them a com- 
pass, and taught them how to direct their course by it ; 
but one of them pointed to an old man with a great 
shaggy head of hair, and said, "His head all same 
compass. " 

The religion of the Micronesians, if it may be called 
a religion, is spiritism. They have no idols, no temples, 
and no priests. They do obeisance to certain trees, 
rocks, or slabs of coral, into which they suppose spirits 
have entered ; and they are very particular in the care 
of the bodies of their deceased friends, whose spirits 
they would conciliate. With this view the Gilbert Isl- 
anders formerly kept the dead bodies of their people, 



MICRONESIA. 231 

anointed with oil and covered with mats, many weeks, 
and sometimes over a year, and after they were decayed 
away carried their skulls as charms, a custom that illus- 
trates the uncleanness and revolting horrors of nearly all 
pagan religions. 

This religion, like all pagan superstitions, exerted no 
restraint on immorality, but rather fostered it. The 
Micronesians lived continually in strife, carried weapons 
at all times, and most of them were covered with scars 
of wounds received in battle. Hardly an adult Micro- 
nesian is living who has not seen some of his relatives 
killed in savage combats. 

An illustration of the brutal character developed 
under their superstitions was afforded by the late king 
of Butaritari, Nakaiea, who ' * was famous for having 
hanged one of his wives and shot three Hawaiian sailors. 
He was jealous of this wife ; and on one occasion, as 
he was playing with her on a schooner, he made a 
noose with a rope and proposed to her to put her head 
into it. She complied, thinking he was joking ; but 
he immediately made his men hoist her up and kept her 
swinging till she was dead. He afterwards had twenty 
wives, whom he kept like prisoners in jail. When the 
king of Hawaii remonstrated with him for killing Ha- 
waiians, he sent word he would fight him in single com- 
bat. He weighed 200 pounds, was a great drunkard, 
and passionately fond of heathen dances. " 

At first view so degraded a people as this would 
seem fit only for destruction, like reptiles or ravenous 
beasts, or like the Canaanites of old. But deep as is 



232 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

the ocean surrounding their reefs and high as the heavens 
above them, so deep and high, and more glorious, is the 
Divine Mercy that would save so wretched a race ; and 
the hearts of Christian people were moved to seek to 
save and reform them. 

The first suggestion of the mission enterprise to this 
people was made by Rev. John D. Paris and Rev. C. 
B. Andrews, of the Hawaiian Mission, who in 1850 vis- 
ited the United States and persuaded the American 
Board to send Hawaiian missionaries to them, in order 
to awake the Hawaiian churches to new activity. Adopt- 
ing this plan the American Board sent Rev. Luther H. 
Gulick, M. D., son of the missionary Rev. P. J. Gulick, 
of Hawaii, Rev. Benjamin Snow, and Rev. Albert A. 
Sturgis, to labor in Micronesia in conjunction with 
Hawaiian missionaries. On their arrival at Honolulu 
two Hawaiian ministers, Rev. Messrs. Opunui and 
Kaaikaia, with their wives, were appointed to accompany 
them. A meeting was then held by the Hawaiian 
Board, formally organizing the Mission to Micronesia 
by appropriate exercises of a consecrating prayer, charges 
to the missionaries, addresses of fellowship, and a dis- 
course by Rev. L. H. Gulick. The children of the mis- 
sionaries in Hawaii then organized themselves into a so- 
ciety, and undertook to support Rev. L. H. Gulick. The 
Hawaiian king Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III., placed 
in the hands of these missionaries a letter greeting all 
the chiefs of the islands in the great ocean to the west- 
ward of Hawaii, telling of the errand of the missionaries 
going to them, commending the missionaries to their 



MICRONESIA. 233 

care and friendship, exhorting them to listen to their 
instructions, testifying of the enlightenment, peace and 
prosperity resulting in Hawaii from the influence of 
the Bible, and advising them to renounce their idols 
and acknowledge, worship and love Jehovah. 

On the 15th of July, 1852, these missionaries with 
their wives, and Rev. E. W. Clark as an accompanying 
delegate from Hawaii, embarked on the chartered 
schooner Caroline, Capt. H. Holdsworth, for Micro- 
nesia. After visiting two of the Gilbert Islands they 
arrived at Kusaie on the 2 1 st of August, and were piloted 
into the harbor by a Mr. Kirkland, one of the three 
foreigners residing on the island. They found the king 
dressed in a faded flannel shirt, while his wife wore a 
cotton gown ; and they observed that the natives treated 
him with great respect, crouching on their knees as they 
approached him. The foreigners called him ' ' Good 
King George, " and had reason to thus name him ; for he 
ruled his people well, and forbade the manufacture of 
intoxicating toddy from cocoanuts. Kamehameha's 
letter was interpreted to him, presents were given to 
him (red shirts, turkey red, and scissors), and it was 
explained to him that the missionaries came, not to rule, 
but to command all to ' ' fear God and honor the king. " 
He was pleased with this explanation, and consented to 
the residence of Mr. Snow among his people, and said, 
1 ' I will be a father to him. " After conveying the other 
missionaries to Ponape, the Caroline, on her return 
voyage, brought Mr. Snow and his wife to this island 
and they were welcomed by the king. 



234 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

The mission work on Kusaie was successful from the 
very beginning. The king faithfully assisted Mr. Snow 
and the other missionaries who subsequently came to 
aid him, built a house for worship, and finally himself 
united with the church. A Girls' Seminary and a Train- 
ing School have been many years successfully conducted 
on this island ; and pupils from the Gilbert and Marshall 
Islands have been educated here for missionary work. 

The Caroline arrived at Ponape on the 6th of Septem- 
ber, and entered the Metalanim harbor. There were ioo 
foreigners at that time residing on this island, who 
on account of their dissolute character might well have 
been called, according to the Chinese style, "Foreign 
Devils." It was a fortunate thing that the natives soon 
distinguished the missionaries from them, as the Chinese 
also have learned to do, calling them "Jesus men." 
Twelve of the foreigners came on board the Caroline and 
begged for tobacco, and were much disappointed that 
they could not obtain it. The missionaries were wel- 
comed by the chiefs of the five tribes on the island, and 
settled in two districts. 

Two months afterwards the foreigners became decid- 
edly hostile to the missionaries. They were infuriated 
because the missionaries exposed a plot of theirs to get 
possession of the Metalanim Harbor by a fraudulent 
contract with the chiefs. Their opposition was strength- 
ened by the dissolute crews of trading vessels and whale 
ships, twenty of which came to the island in six months ; 
this opposition became serious when the small-pox was 
introduced, and the foreigners informed the natives that 



MICRONESIA. 235 

it was caused by the missionaries. On the 1 9th of Feb- 
ruary, 1854, the ship Delta, Capt. Wicks, arrived with 
two men sick of this disease, contracted at Honolulu. 
The captain put them ashore on the Paniau Island, a 
little island near Ponape, in order to care for them there 
in seclusion ; but the Ponape natives stole their blankets 
and thus propagated the disease. Dr. Gulick had ob- 
tained vaccine matter from Hawaii, but it proved worth- 
less ; he therefore attempted inoculation, and was gen- 
erally successful in saving the lives of the natives on 
whom he operated. About this time the house occupied 
by Mr. Sturgis burned down, and he was obliged with 
his wife to camp in the woods. War also broke out 
between the different tribes, and raged for many months. 
Dr. Gulick has remarked that it would be impossible for 
any one to realize " the gloom that was over them during 
those awful months of sickness and death, of the panic 
of the natives and of war between the tribes. " 

After eight years of persevering labor the missionaries 
on this island were cheered by the conversion of three 
natives ; and soon eight more made Christian profession. 
A church was then built measuring forty by sixty feet ; 
and a bell for it was received from friends in Illinois. 
Soon afterwards the chief, Nanakin, and fourteen others 
joined the church. In 1867 meetings were held in 
twelve places, there were 1,000 readers, three churches, 
100 church members, and congregations at religious ser- 
vices sometimes increased to the number of 600. ' ' The 
missionaries had held steadily on till the day broke. " 

In 1857 mission work was begun in the Gilbert and 



236 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Marshall groups ; in the former by Rev. H. Bingham, 
son of the pioneer missionary of that name in Hawaii. 
The first station in this group was made at Apaiang, than 
which hardly a more desolate island with a more unat- 
tractive people could be found in the world. To come 
into the small area of this island, with its contracted 
horizon, its unchangingclimate, with no sounds but the 
unceasing roar and gurgle of the waves, the soughing of 
the winds through the cocoa plumes, and the yells of the 
savages, with no fellowship with congenial spirits and no 
tidings from home oftener than from six to twenty-four 
months, would seem like going into solitary confinement. 
But it was even worse — like dwelling in a mad-house 
with its different wards at war with each other ; for the 
people of the neighboring islands occasionally attacked 
each other, and Mr. Bingham and his wife were once in 
a situation like that described of Robinson Crusoe when 
savages invaded his island. A fleet of canoes from the 
island of Tarawa, six miles distant, came to the very vil- 
lage where Mr. Bingham dwelt and near by fought a 
desperate battle. The king of Apaiang was killed ; but 
the Tarawans were finally defeated, and driven away, 
leaving many of their number dead. After this battle 
Mr. Bingham rescued a Tarawan boy, who many years 
afterwards became a very serviceable helper in translating 
the Bible. Besides the perils and privations experienced 
on this island was the discouraging indifference of the 
natives to the work of the missionary. They would do 
nothing except for pay, and demanded tobacco and fire- 
arms as their only pay. It was remarked that a native 



MICRONESIA. 237 

would kill a man for a plug of tobacco. It seemed about 
as difficult to gather them into churches and schools as 
to tame the sea birds that flew over the island and the 
roving fish of the lagoons. But in process of time the 
unremitting labors of the missionaries resulted in the 
conversion of many natives, and churches were organized 
on this and the adjacent islands. After seventeen years 
of residence here Mr. Bingham was obliged by failing 
health to remove to Honolulu, where he completed the 
translation of the Bible. Other missionaries then took 
his place, among whom were many Hawaiians, and 
nearly all the Gilbert Islanders embraced Christianity. 

The occasion of the mission work on the Marshall Isl- 
ands was the arrival in canoes at Kusaie of one hundred 
storm-driven natives of Ebon who there landed expecting 
to be killed, according to the former customs, but were 
rescued by the missionaries. So interested did Rev. G, 
Pierson and Rev. E. Doane become in these natives that 
after their return to their homes they took passage on 
the Morning Star to labor among them. They were 
warned by sea-captains that it was dangerous to visit 
Ebon, as the inhabitants were treacherous and ferocious. 
Foreigners had committed such outrages on these natives 
that they had resolved to kill the first white man that 
should come to their shores ; and when the Morning 
Star with these missionaries drew near they put off 
to her in a multitude of canoes ; and the captain of the 
vessel became apprehensive that they designed to cap- 
ture her. He therefore put up boarding-netting and put 
men fore and aft in readiness for an assault. But Dr. 



238 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Pierson addressed a few Marshall words, which he had 
previously learned, to a man in a canoe ; and then the 
natives exclaiming, "Docotor, Mijineri," (Doctor, 
Missionary), and laughing joyously, requested him to 
land, and welcomed him to their island. 

The work of the missionaries was greatly advanced, 
as in other islands, by the wonder with which the natives 
regarded the art of reading. An amusing incident illus- 
trated this. One of the missionaries once sent a native 
with two melons and a letter to his assistant at a distant 
place. On the journey, the sun being hot, the native 
ate one of the melons. When he arrived at his destina- 
tion he handed the other melon with the letter to the 
teacher. But the latter inquired for another melon. 
The native expressed surprise that he should have known 
that two melons were sent. " Why," he said, " I covered 
the letter with a stone while I was eating the melon. 
How could the letter have known that I ate it ?" 

Other missionaries, American and Hawaiian, subse- 
quently went to the Marshall group, and in a few years 
a wonderful change was wrought in the inhabitants. 

In 1 87 1 Mr. Sturgis went by the Morning Star to 
the island of Pingelap and persuaded the people of that 
island, who were "living like dogs in kennels/' to con- 
sent to the coming of missionaries. But when, a few 
months afterwards, teachers were sent thither the king of 
that island forbade them to land. It was found that a 
few weeks previous the pirate, "Bully Hayes," had ex- 
torted from the king a written agreement, signed by the 
king's "marks," that no other traders and no missiona- 



MICRONESIA. 239 

ries should be allowed to dwell in his island for ten 
years. But about this time six natives of this island 
were carried by a trader to Kusaie and there set adrift. 
They were kindly treated and instructed by the mission- 
aries. Two of them were converted and returned as 
teachers to their island. A pagan sorcerer of their island 
now endeavored to kill them by incantations, but in the 
performance fell in convulsions, and only at last recov- 
ered when the teachers came and prayed over him. The 
natives then exclaimed that the new religion had tri- 
umphed. Other teachers were then sent thither and 
were welcomed by the people. In 1885 Dr. C. H. Wet- 
more, of Hawaii, visited this island, and found a house 
of worship that would seat 1,000 people and a church 
organized with 250 members, and remarked that "the 
change wrought in this people was perfectly marvellous. " 
The mission enterprise to the Mortlock Islands began 
by a wonderful self-consecration of a royal princess of 
Ponape, Opatinia, daughter of one of the kings of Pona- 
pe and heir to the throne. She relinquished her oppor- 
tunity of becoming queen and offered herself as a mis- 
sionary to the dark islands to the west, and in 1873, with 
her husband, Obadiah, and two other teachers, was con- 
veyed on the Morning Star to Lukunor, of the Mortlocks. 
On arriving at this island the accompanying missionary 
asked the natives whether they would welcome and pro- 
vide for these teachers, and they assented. For more 
than a year the Morning Star could not be again sent 
thither, and it was feared that these teachers had seri- 
ously suffered ; but it was found that the natives had 



240 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

faithfully fulfilled their agreement, and though an unu- 
sual storm had swept great waves over their island and 
destroyed most of their breadfruit trees, and many of the 
natives had died of famine, they had generously fed these 
teachers. When, a year after, the Morning Star again 
arrived, a multitude of natives gathered at the beach 
singing songs to welcome her, and the missionary dele- 
gate was conducted to an elegant house of worship that 
had been built, and a large number of the natives were 
organized into a church. 

The natives of the great atoll of Ruk, further west, 
now hearing of the mission work in the Mortlock Isl- 
ands, sought for teachers. With this desire a chief of 
Ruk went forty miles, to Nama, of the Mortlocks, and 
persuaded a Ponape teacher, Moses, to return with him 
to his island and instruct his people. This chief built a 
house of worship for the use of Moses, and in a year, 
with thirty-six of his people, sought baptism. In 1884 
Rev. Robert Logan and his wife and Miss A. Palmer 
went to the aid of Moses, and settled at a beautiful place 
on an island of Ruk which they named Anapauo (rest- 
ing-place). Mr. Logan did energetic work till he died 
of malarial fever, and then his work was heroically con- 
tinued by his wife. In 1886 there were 1,000 members 
of churches in Ruk and the Mortlock Islands. 

Notable assistance has been rendered to the Micro- 
nesian Mission by the pupils of Sunday-schools in the 
United States. At the suggestion of Rev. T. Coan, of 
Hawaii, subscriptions of ten cents a share were solicited 
from the Sunday-schools for the construction of a vessel, 



MICRONESIA. 241 

to be called the Morning Star, for carrying supplies to 
Micronesia and for conveying the missionaries to and 
fro. The first vessel thus built proved inadequate and 
was sold. Another was then built, and this after several 
voyages was carried by powerful ocean currents, during 
a lull of the wind, on the reefs of Kusaie and wrecked. 
A third Morning Star was then built by the aid of the 
children ; and this also on February 23, 1883, was 
wrecked in the same way in the same place. The fourth 
Morning Star was then built, a barkentine of 430 tons 
with auxiliary steam power, and this vessel has done 
good service ever since. Recently a small schooner, 
the Robert Logan, has been built, and a vessel called 
the Hiram Bingham, with a gasoline engine, for use 
among the Micronesian Islands. The Sunday-schools 
have contributed $114,593 for the construction of these 
vessels. 

When at length all Micronesia seemed about to be 
illuminated by Christian light kindled from island to 
island, dark clouds rose through the establishment by 
European nations of foreign sovereignty over this Archi- 
pelago. Germany proclaimed a Protectorate over all 
Micronesia and Spain protested that Micronesia be- 
longed to her by the right of discovery. The dispute 
was referred to the Pope of Rome, and he assigned the 
Caroline Islands to Spain and the Marshall Islands to 
Germany. 

In accordance with this decision a Spanish war ves- 
sel was sent to Ponape in July, 1886, and the com- 
mander, consulting as little the natives as he did the 



242 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

crabs that scrambled over the sands and the birds that 
flew over the island, required the Ponapean chiefs to 
cede their property and sovereignty to Spain ; and under 
duress, with heavy hearts, they made their "marks" to 
the document of cession. 

In the following year, in the month of March, an- 
other Spanish war vessel took thither a governor, six 
Catholic priests, fifty soldiers, and twenty-five convicts. 
This governor at once took possession of a piece of land, 
called Mejiniong, the deeds for which had long been held 
by Mr. Doane for the American Mission. Mr. Doane 
remonstrated, offering to give another tract of land, and 
was arrested, and with no notification of charges against 
himself was conveyed 2,000 miles, to Manilla. But by 
the prompt intervention of the United States ship Essex 
the governor of Manilla was obliged to release him and 
convey him back to Ponape. 

But before the return of Mr. Doane the wrath of the 
natives burst forth. They had been obliged by the Span- 
iards to work without pay, constructing a fort on the 
purloined land. When at length they refused to go to 
work a company of twenty soldiers fired on them, kill- 
ing two of them and wounding three more. They then 
rushed upon the soldiers and killed them to a man. 
The governor and the rest of the Spaniards now took 
refuge in the fort, and the natives, feeling as they some- 
times did when a whale was stranded in one of their 
lagoons, gathered in great numbers to storm the fort. 
Seeing that defence of the fort was impossible the gov- 
ernor and his officers and soldiers at midnight undertook 



MICRONESIA. 243 

to flee over the shallow water to their war-ship, and 
were attacked by the natives, and all, fifty in number, 
killed. 

Mr. Doane now persuaded the new governor to pro- 
claim pardon to the natives, and the natives, excepting 
the Metalanim tribe, to give up their arms and submit. 
The governor then sent four war vessels and 1,200 sol- 
diers to the Metalanim harbor of Owa, and they erected 
a fort on the mission premises notwithstanding the pro- 
test of the lady missionary, Miss Palmer. As serious 
trouble was inevitable, the missionary ladies, Misses 
Palmer, Fletcher and Foss, Mrs. Cole, Mrs. Rand, with 
eleven pupils, took passage to Mokil, and soon after the 
Spaniards shelled Owa and burned the mission build- 
ings, consisting of three dwelling-houses, a large girls' 
schoolhouse, and a church. Three battles were then 
fought; but in the almost impenetrable jungles no na- 
tives were able to keep at bay 1,200 Spanish soldiers. 
In these battles the natives lost only six men, and killed 
369 Spaniards and captured 100 guns. The Spanish 
governor then sent messages to the exiled missionaries, 
requesting them to return, as ' ' their presence was neces- 
sary for the maintenance of order. " Recently Spain has 
yielded to the demands of the United States for repara- 
tion, and offered to pay for the destruction of the prop- 
erty of the American Mission ; but the Spaniards now 
forbid the missionaries and the Morning Star to come 
to Ponape, while they admit vessels of every other kind. 
And so, while the Spaniards have done nothing for the 
welfare of the Ponapeans during the hundred years since 



244 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

they discovered them, they claim authority by the ' ' right 
of discovery " to expel the American missionaries, who 
have spent forty years in costly, arduous and perilous 
labors for the Ponapeans, and have lifted them out of 
pagan barbarism into a considerable degree of Christian 
civilization. 

In the Marshall Islands the Germans avoided war 
with the natives, but grievously oppressed them by im- 
posing taxes and obstructing the mission work. The 
little island of Ebon was required to pay annually $500 
as taxes to Germany, and the other islands in like pro- 
portion. The missionaries were forbidden to labor in 
islands where they had not previously been located ; and 
two of them were imprisoned for several weeks for preach- 
ing outside of their own fields. Permission was refused 
them to buy or lease land for sites for schools or churches. 
The Morning Star was required to take out annually a 
license, at an expense of $250, for selling Bibles and 
other books and articles needed by the churches. 

The natives of the Gilbert Islands now became 
alarmed lest one of these Christian nations should ex- 
tend its kind protection over them also. To escape such 
a fate, Tebureimoa, king of Butaritari, took passage to 
San Francisco, arriving there in April, 1892, and offered 
his island to the United States. Not receiving a reply 
from President Harrison, but expecting a favorable an- 
swer, he returned home, and in preparation for the ces- 
sion to the United States constructed a wharf 1,000 feet 
long. But the news of his overtures was secretly sent 
to Britain, and the British war-ship Royalist, Capt. Da- 



MICRONESIA. 245 

vis, hastened to Butaritari, and there on the 1 2th of June 
hoisted the British flag, although the king protested that 
negotiations for annexation to the United States were 
pending. The rule of the British in this island has thus 
far been excellent. They have forbidden the sale of 
liquors and firearms to the natives, and put a stop to the 
''black-bird traffic," or slave-trade. 

Although the mission work in Micronesia has been 
seriously retarded by these usurpations of European na- 
tions the churches have generally held their own, and in 
some of the islands made great progress. On Ponape a 
Christian chief, Mr. Nanapei, has been laboring as a 
missionary, and reports that the native Christians are 
continuing steadfast notwithstanding the threats and 
allurements of the Spaniards, and that their schools and 
churches are progressing satisfactorily. The mission 
boarding-school that was expelled by the Spaniards from 
this island is now successfully established on Mokil. In 
the Marshall Islands the native missionary, Mr. Lanien, 
after having been imprisoned six months for preaching 
at Mejuro, has been released and has again begun to 
preach, saying that he would rather be executed by the 
Spaniards than cease from preaching. It may be said 
that a great work of God has been performed, and is still 
going on, in these islands. From the inception of this 
mission to the present, time 20,000 natives have been re- 
ceived into the churches. There are now 47 churches in 
Micronesia, with an enrolled membership of 4,509. 
There are four training-schools with 114 pupils, three 
girls' boarding schools with 79 pupils, and common 



24^ THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

schools with 2,422 pupils. The annual contributions 
for evangelical work amount to $2,000. 

As these islands wave their beautiful cocoa plumes in 
triumph over the briny deep, so their churches now sing 
glad songs of victory over the foul paganism of yore. 
Though the native converts do not attain to the high 
type of piety seen in countries that have enjoyed centu- 
ries of Christian culture, they exhibit instances of as gen- 
uine goodness as is found in more favored lands — a 
goodness that doubtless causes rejoicing in heaven. And 
these sea-swept reefs and tiny deserts of the ocean, that 
have long been polluted with the lust and cruelty of pa- 
ganism and the more blamable atrocities of savage white 
men, are now becoming almost holy ground by the con- 
secrated toil and premature deaths of Christian mission- 
aries, and by the beginnings, in the fiendlike natures of 
the degraded islanders, of heavenly character and life. 

Since the above was written a notable missionary success 
has been achieved in Nauru, or Pleasant Island of the 
Marshall Group. This island is situated four hundred 
miles west of the other islands of that group, and is 
eighteen miles in circumference. " It has sixteen hundred 
inhabitants, who formerly were degraded, naked, witch- 
craft-ridden savages, divided into warring clans, and living 
a wretched existence." 

" To this island Rev. Philip Adam Delaporte and his 
wife went as missionaries in the year 1 900. Mr. Delaporte 
had been converted to Christianity in Peniel Meetings at 
Los Angeles, and had consecrated himself to the missionary 
cause. He had then visited Honolulu to ascertain about 



MICRONESIA. 247 

missionary fields ; and there, through the influence of Rev. 
Orramel Gulick, missionary and navigator, had obtained 
for himself and his wife appointment and promise of sup- 
port by the Central Union Church of Honolulu for laboring 
as missionaries on Nauru. 

" In the short space of eight years Mr. and Mrs. Dela- 
porte have reduced the Nauru language to writing, have 
translated into it the New Testament and several other 
books, have taught the people so successfully that few 
adults over fifty years of age cannot read the New Testa- 
ment, have done other such notable educational work that 
twelve boys, able to use Nauru, German and English, are 
employed as typewriters by the British Phosphate Company 
operating there, have pushed industrial training to an ex- 
tent enabling natives to set in type and publish the entire 
New Testament, have converted to the Christian faith six 
hundred adults and baptized three hundred children, and 
have transformed this people into a clean, clothed and 
peaceful community. On this island there are now five 
churches and five schoolhouses. One of these churches 
has accommodations for nine hundred people, and a usual 
attendance of eight hundred." 

After the arrival of the Delaportes, phosphate was dis- 
covered on this island, and a British company engaged in 
the trade of exporting it. This company is under Christian 
management, and nobly aids the missionaries. It also 
gives employment to the natives, and thereby enables 
them to secure the means for building houses of foreign 
lumber and for living in civilized style. 

Another notable achievement in Micronesia is the 



248 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

translation by Rev. Hirarn Bingham, D. D., formerly mis- 
sionary at Ebon, of the entire Bible and a commentary 
thereon into the language of the Gilbert Islanders, and a 
compilation of a dictionary of 6,000 words. 

Recently the American Board of Missions has com- 
menced negotiations for committing to the London Mis- 
sionary Society the care of its Mission in the Gilbert 
Group, and to the Evangelical Missionary Societies of 
Germany the other islands of Micronesia. 

In the year 1899 Spain ceded to Germany the Caroline, 
Pelew and Ladrone Islands, excepting Guam, for the con- 
sideration of about $3,000,000. By this cession the 
dominant Power over these groups becomes Protestant 
instead of Roman Catholic. 

The advantage to the natives of this change is apparent 
when we recal lhow the Roman Catholic Government of 
the Philippines ill-treated the people of Ponape, and ob- 
serve the results of the Roman Catholic Mission in the 
Philippines as compared with the results of the Evangelical 
Missions in Micronesia. In the Philippines the Roman 
Catholics labored more than three hundred years, aided by 
the Government, the wealth and the military power of 
Spain. The results are that the best educated Filipinos 
are unfit to maintain over themselves an independent 
Civil Government, and the great mass of the Filipinos are 
in their primitive barbarism — some of them the lowest 
tribes of the Pacific Islands. In Micronesia the evangelical 
missionaries have labored fifty years, and the natives have 
almost universally renounced paganism, accepted Christ- 
ianity, and far advanced toward Christian civilization. 



THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 249 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 

Continuing the narrative of mission work in the 
Pacific, we now pass from accounts of the operations 
of the London Missionary Society and American Board 
to those of the Wesleyan Society in the Tonga and Fiji 
Islands. It is interesting and most important to note 
that no less efficient labor was performed, and divine 
blessing enjoyed, by the agents of the latter society than 
by those of the former. The peculiar distinctions that 
separated the denominations represented by these socie- 
ties were of no practical importance in the missionary 
enterprise, if anywhere else. In no part of the world 
has that enterprise achieved nobler triumphs, nor enjoyed 
more of the divine blessing, than in the Tonga and Fiji 
groups. 

The Tonga Islands are situated between 18 and 23 ° 
south latitude, and 174° and 176 west longitude, and 
consist of three clusters : the Tongatabu islands at the 
south, the Happai group in the centre, and the Vavau 
group, the most beautiful of the Tongas, at the north- 
west. The collective area of these islands is 374 square 
miles. Only thirty of them are of any considerable size ; 
the rest, 1 50 in number, are small islets of coral. 

In the Vavau group are the volcanic peaks Kao, 
5,080 feet high, Tofua, 2,846 feet high, and Late, 1,820 



250 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

feet high. The rest of the Tongas are low islands, having 
a few hills 600 feet in height, but averaging only from 
40 to 60 feet above the surface of the ocean. While they 
lack in attractions of natural scenery they are unsurpassed 
in the beauty of their vegetation ; for their soil, which is 
composed of ocean sand, vegetable mould, and volcanic 
debris, is like " garden soil," and so well cultivated as to 
make them indeed gardens of beauty and fruitfulness. 

The underlying rock of the low islands is coral lime- 
stone, and also a white crystalline rock which is perhaps 
a metamorphic from sandstone. In the strata of these 
rocks stalactitic caves of great beauty have been formed. 
Into one of these caves, which opens under water in the 
sea, a young chief once dove, when condemned to die, 
and here was visited and fed by his lady-love, until to- 
gether they went in a canoe to another group of islands. 

The natives of the Tonga Islands are physically and 
mentally the finest of the Polynesian race. As has been 
remarked, De Quatrefages, in a table giving the stature 
of different races of men, puts the natives of Samoa and 
Tonga as the largest in the world, giving their average 
height as 5 feet and 9.92 inches. Their superiority to 
the other Pacific Islanders may be attributed to the facts 
that they lived in a better style, that they did not gener- 
ally contract marriages at a very early age, and that they 
cared well for their children. But their primitive condi- 
tion was bad enough. Cannibalism and other inhuman 
practices prevailed, though to a less extent than in some 
other islands of the Pacific. When, in 1 773, Capt. Cook 
visited this group he named them the Friendly Islands, 




King George Tubou Second, of Tonga. 



THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 25 I 

because of the friendly reception the natives gave him ; 
but he knew little of their true character. From events 
that transpired among them during the first years after 
their discovery, from their treacherous murders of chiefs 
and savage wars, we may infer that the long ages of their 
previous history had been a fearful period of barbarous 
strife, revolting crimes and gloomy superstitions. 

To this people in their primeval darkness mission- 
aries, in 1797 and subsequent years, brought that light 
which alone has transformed human nature, and some- 
times has raised the vilest of men to angelic character. 
Our previous consideration of the mission in Tahiti leads 
us to inquire what became of those members of the first 
company of missionaries to the Pacific who, in 1797, 
were conveyed by the ship DurT to these Tonga Islands. 
We learn that they went to Tongatabu, and landed in a 
district called Hihifu, and were welcomed by a chief; that 
soon afterward this chief was murdered by his own bro- 
ther and the island involved in sanguinary war, and dur- 
ing this war three of the missionaries were killed, and the 
rest were obliged to hide among the rocks and caverns. 

In these days, when a halo of glory surrounds the 
name of missionary, when in many mission fields the 
comforts and luxuries of civilization are enjoyed and 
there are opportunities by steamers and telegraphs for 
quick communication with friends, it is well to look 
back to the condition of these pioneers of the mission 
enterprise when it was new and untried, and regarded by 
the public with great incredulity ; when a voyage of six 
months separated them from their relatives ; when they 



252 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

toiled almost hopelessly amid great privations and perils, 
and sometimes were robbed, half-starved, and obliged 
to flee for their lives. Their sufferings and privations 
were not indeed essential, nor to be desired, in this 
enterprise. It is matter for rejoicing that the sublime 
work of missions is becoming comparatively easy and 
even attractive ; but the disinterested benevolence shown 
by these first laborers in this cause indicates that it orig- 
inated in something higher than mere human motives 
and has something of the lustre of heaven. 

These missionaries of the London Missionary Society 
struggled on many years amid great hardships and per- 
ils, with no prospect of success, and finally, in the year 
1800, went by an English ship to New South Wales. 
Then for over twenty years these islands were left to their 
primitive heathenism. Finally, in 1822, a Wesleyan mis- 
sionary, Rev. Walter Lawry, encouraged by the success 
of the missionaries in the Society Islands, went from 
Sydney to begin missionary work at Hihifu on the island 
of Tongatabu. He found there an Englishman by the 
name of Singleton, who had been tossing many years like 
a drift log on the ocean and at last had been thrown 
upon this island, and had remained here long enough to 
learn the native language. His misfortunes had pre- 
pared him to receive good ; as men sometimes ' ' only 
by shipwreck find the shores of divine wisdom." He 
acted as interpreter for Mr. Lawry, accepted the gospel 
and greatly assisted in the missionary work. After 
laboring fourteen months Mr. Lawry was obliged, on 
account of the failure of his wife's health, to go to New 



THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 253 

South Wales. The reports he sent home of his labors 
encouraged the Wesleyan Society to send more mission- 
aries to the Tonga Islands, among whom were the Revs. 
John Thomas and John Hutchinson, who arrived in 
1826, and Revs. Nathaniel Turner and William Cross 
and Mr. Weiss, who arrived in 1827. 

Here now we find a new link connecting this mission 
with that of Tahiti. These missionaries found at one of 
the chief towns of Tongatabu, Nukualofa, two native 
teachers from Tahiti preaching in the Tahitian language, 
and a chapel already erected in which 240 persons were 
regularly attending their preaching. Thus the mission- 
ary work in these islands grew out of that in Tahiti, and 
in various ways derived an important impetus there- 
from. 

Tidings of the introduction of a new religion were 
now soon carried to the other islands ; and the chief of 
the Haabai group, Taufaahau, went to Tongatabu to 
judge of it for himself. It seems never to have occurred 
to the Polynesians in their primitive state to doubt 
respecting the value of their idol-worship; but when 
once doubt was suggested, and the impotence of their 
idols shown, they were quick to renounce their supersti- 
tions. Taufaahau's eyes were opened to the folly of 
paganism by his visit at Tongatabu ; and he hastened 
home to his island to destroy his idols and all the para- 
phernalia of their worship. The priests made opposition 
to this project and prepared to celebrate a great festival 
in order to promote enthusiasm for their pagan rites. 
To prevent this festival Taufaahau now desecrated their 



254 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

temple by driving a drove of pigs into it and by sending 
his women servants to sleep in it ; for, with the low esti- 
mation generally entertained by pagan nations for women, 
the Tongans regarded the presence of a woman as a 
pollution to a temple. When the heathen now came 
with their offerings of turtle and sacred fish they found 
their gods hanging by the neck from the rafters, and, 
fearing lest they themselves should be similarly treated by 
the wrath of their king, retired. Taufaahau then sent a 
canoe and brought Rev. John Thomas to his island, and 
under his guidance erected a large chapel in which con- 
gregations of from a thousand to fifteen hundred people 
often assembled. 

As in other groups of islands, the mission successes 
here spread from one island to another ; for Taufaahau 
now, with his heart glowing with the new light, visited 
Finau, the king of the Vavau Islands, and persuaded him 
to renounce idolatry. Finau did this in a dramatic way. 
Causing seven of his principal idols to be set in a row be- 
fore himself he said to them, "I have brought you here 
to prove you. If you are gods run away, or I will burn 
you." As none of them ran he burned them, together 
with eighteen temples. 

Finau left the government of the Vavau group at his 
death to Taufaahau, who had been baptized with the 
name of "King George Tubou." The Tongatabu group 
was afterwards added to his dominion, and he became 
king of all the Tongas. He still, however, continued to 
be an earnest and humble Christian, and became an ex- 
cellent local preacher, faithfully meeting the classes that 



THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 255 

were appointed to him and superintending the schools. 
On one occasion he took into a meeting one of the idols 
which he previously had suspended to the rafters of a 
temple, and said, "This is the thing I formerly wor- 
shipped ;" and then, holding up first one hand and then 
the other, each of which was minus two joints of the little 
finger, he said, "My father cut off these fingers and 
offered them in sacrifice to this very thing." 

This King George was a man of great ability and 
high character. He is described as upwards of six feet in 
height, remarkably well proportioned and athletic, with 
a fine open countenance and unassuming dignity. He 
has been styled the "Father of the Tonga Mission," so 
greatly did he assist this mission by all his influence. 

In 1834 an extraordinary revival of religion prevailed 
over the Tonga Islands. The missionaries believed that 
on one day 1,000 souls were converted. Other revivals 
followed ; and the result was, as in other groups of isl- 
ands, that forms of constitutional civil government took 
the place of the previous savage despotism, common 
schools and a high school were established, and at Nvj/- 
kualofa a training school was formed for educating 
preachers. It was called "Tubou College" in honor of 
King George Tubou. In i860 nearly 500 licensed 
preachers had gone out from this institution to stations 
in their own islands and distant pagan groups. 

In 1870 it was confidently asserted that not one hea- 
then remained in the Tonga Islands. The Rev. Robert 
Young testified that, with the exception of fifty persons, 
the entire population had embraced Christianity, that not 



256 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

less than 8, 000 of them could read the sacred Scriptures, 
and 5,000 could write their own language. 

The Tongan Mission had now become not only self- 
supporting, but also a large contributor to the funds of 
the Wesleyan Society. Situated as these islands are, 
away from the most frequented routes of ships, they have 
developed better results from mission work than have 
been seen in almost any other groups of the Pacific, and 
exhibit the true achievements of the mission enterprise. 

After the Tongan people had thus almost universally 
accepted Christianity they unfortunately entered into a 
serious dispute with the missionaries concerning the 
disposition of the money contributed by their Churches. 
This money the missionaries were accustomed to take to 
Auckland, to be there distributed for various religious 
purposes by the Wesleyan Conference. The people com- 
plained that too much of it was applied to the cause of 
Foreign Missions, some of it being even sent for the mission 
cause at Rome, and too little of it given to their needy 
Churches. The King insisted that the people had the 
right to determine the disposition of their contributions. 
In this he was upheld by one of the missionaries, Rev. 
Shirley Baker. This missionary the Wesleyan Conference 
then excommunicated from the mission. The next day 
the King appointed him his Prime Minister, and with his 
aid proceeded to organize another Denomination, the 
Free Church of Tonga. A fierce rivalry in securing the 
Tongans as church members then ensued between this 
Church and the Wesleyan Church, and in process of time 
the struggle became political. 



THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 257 

On entering upon his duties as Prime Minister, Baker 
undertook to induce the King to adopt a Constitutional 
form of Government. This was very necessary. The 
Government had previously been utterly arbitrary and 
despotic. The King was regarded as the Father of his 
people, possessing parental rights as well as parental duties. 
He had no regular salary, but simply took what he needed. 
He had but to raise his hand to appropriate a pig, a field 
of yams, or anything else he might desire. The chiefs 
under him ruled by the same method. The Government 
was in debt, and throughout all the group there was very 
little money. It was not easy to induce the King to es- 
tablish the proposed new form of Government. He did 
not see the necessity nor the desirability of a Constitution 
that would restrict his official action ; but an incident oc- 
curred that induced him to favor the project. One night 
a great number of one-eyed fishes, a species that seldom 
appeared in Tongan waters, were caught near Tongatabu. 
According to the ancient customs these fishes were to be 
delivered to the chiefs alone ; but by mistake a bundle of 
them was left at the door of a poor cripple. The chief, 
for whom the bundle was intended, punished the cripple, 
without judicial process, by setting him at hard work on 
his premises. Against this outrage Baker raised such a 
storm of indignation that the King directed him to prepare 
the proposed Constitution and Code of Laws. 

When the Constitution and Code had been prepared the 
King summoned all his chiefs to Tongatabu for considering 
and adopting them. After reading and discussing them 
only a few of the chiefs signed their adoption of them. 



258 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

The King then compelled the rest of the chiefs to remain 
at Tongatabu till they all had signed, and then he pro- 
claimed the Constitution and Code as the system of 
Government of the group. 

In the Constitution and Code there were provisions 
concerning the disposition of the lands of the group and a 
prohibition against sales of intoxicating liquors to the 
natives, which were unacceptable to the foreigners in the 
group. In speaking of these provisions Baker said to the 
author, " I anticipated the doctrines of Henry George." 
This was true. Before Henry George promulgated his 
theories Baker had by this Constitution and Code con- 
stituted the King the owner of all the lands in the group, 
and arranged that an allotment of the lands should be 
rented to every male citizen, over sixteen years of age, at 
nine dollars a year. Every such citizen was to pay the 
rent, whether he took an allotment or not ; and no citizen 
was to be deprived of his allotment, unless he should fail 
to pay the rent. There were to be no taxes, but the 
Government revenue was to be derived from the land- 
rents, customs, harbor fees, postage, and the fines imposed 
in the Criminal Courts. To aid the natives in paying the 
land-rents, Baker arranged that a line of New Zealand 
steamers should call twice a month at three islands of the 
group. 

At the time when the Constitution and Code were under 
consideration several of the foreigners were far advanced 
in negotiations for buying on speculation, extensive tracts 
of land, and others of them were conducting the liquor 
traffic. One of them, it is said, endeavoured to bribe 



THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 259 

Baker by an offer of fifty thousand dollars to eliminate 
from the Constitution and Code the provisions concerning 
the lands and the liquor traffic. This Baker refused to do. 
The foreigners then united with the Wesleyans in opposing 
Baker, and in the excitement that ensued an attempt was 
made to assassinate Baker. Shots were fired at him from 
ambush as he was riding with his children. He was not 
hurt, but his son and daughter were seriously wounded. 
The would-be assassins were arrested, tried, convicted of 
high treason, and, by order of the King, executed on an 
adjacent islet. 

The foreigners and Wesleyans then requested Governor 
Thurston of Fiji to deport Baker, as a British subject 
dangerous to the peace of Tonga. The Governor sent a 
Commission to investigate, and the Commission reported 
in approval of Baker. The request was renewed on dif- 
ferent grounds, and another Commission was sent, with 
the same result. The foreigners then announced to Gov- 
ernor Thurston that Baker was negotiating with Germany 
a Treaty that would give that country a preponderating 
influence in Tonga ; and the Wesleyans, to render less 
objectionable a deportation of Baker, the leader of the 
Free Church, offered to send away Rev. Dr. Moulton, the 
leader of the Wesleyan Church. Governor Thurston then 
despatched a warship to remove to Auckland Baker and 
Moulton. On arriving at Tongatabu the Commander of 
the warship gave Baker twenty-four hours for preparing for 
embarkation, placed a Commission over the Tongan 
Treasury, to ascertain whether Baker had honestly ad- 
ministered the Tongan finances, and then conveyed Moul- 



26o THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

ton, and Baker (the Prime Minister of an independent 
country), to Auckland. 

It was afterwards found that Baker had honestly man- 
aged the Tongan finances ; and that the proposed Treaty 
of Tonga with Germany was almost identical with the 
previous Treaty of Tonga with Great Britain. 

The work that Baker had done proved a great benefit to 
Tonga. The establishment of the Constitutional Govern- 
ment was a noble achievement. The arrangements for 
land-rents secured to the Government a good revenue, to 
the King a suitable salary, and to each of the chiefs an 
income of a hundred dollars a month. By the land-rent 
system the natives were secured in possession of their 
homesteads, prevented from selling them, and encouraged 
to improve them ; and by the opportunities, afforded by 
the steamers for exporting the products of their lands, they 
acquired an affluence hardly before enjoyed by their chiefs. 

The happy condition of the natives the writer observed 
in a visit to three islands of the group. At Tongatabu he 
found Nukualofa, the capital, like a delightful park, the 
houses, without surrounding fences, standing among or- 
namental and fruitful trees on a continuous lawn of ber- 
mudas grass. The houses were of foreign style and of 
lumber from New Zealand; for to build huts of the 
previous style was almost impossible, since horses, ranging 
loose, had eaten all the grasses suitable for thatch, and the 
thatch of the lower parts of the houses. By their ap- 
pearance the natives confirmed the statement of Quatra- 
fages, that the Tongans and Samoans are physically the 
largest people in the world. Most of the men seemed to 



THE TONGA, OR FRIENDLY, ISLANDS. 26l 

be about six feet in height. They evidently were Polyne- 
sian, with a trace of Papuan. They all seemed to be well- 
to-do, many of them riding in carriages or carts, conveying 
passengers or freight to the steamer lying at the end of a 
long pier extending into the lagoon. On a high hill in 
the town, where before the arrival of the missionaries a 
fierce battle was fought, there was a noble church, now 
speaking peace instead of war. Near by was the King's 
palace, a singularly fine building for a place so far from 
civilized countries ; and near the palace was the King's 
chapel, an elegant building, in which the writer found a 
bare-foot native playing admirably on a large pipe organ. 
In the Tubou College, then under the management of a 
son of the deported Dr. Moulton, the writer attended a 
delightful musicale of the pupils, who were preparing for 
a Christmas celebration. They had been taught by the 
Tonic-Sol-Fa method, and sang at sight music in four 
parts. In this institution there were 1 70 young men and 
women receiving education by which to be fitted to be 
teachers, Government officials, ministers, or missionaries. 

On the steamer on which the writer voyaged a large 
company of natives embarked, taking yams, bread-fruit 
and bananas to the people of Habai, who were suffering 
from a famine caused by a hurricane and a subsequent 
drouth. At evening they sang and prayed together, and 
then they laid their heads on their olungas (wooden stools 
used as pillows) and rested till morning. 

In the Tongan Islands the missionary enterprise has 
been conducted, as in the Cook Group, with the advantage 
of seclusion from corrupting foreign influences, and for 



262 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

that reason has been signally successful. The natives are 
as generally able to read and write and as moral and 
religious, as are those of the Cook Group, and they are 
increasing in number on all their islands. 

In 1905 the population was 20,000, the exports, con- 
sisting chiefly of copra, bananas, pine apples and oranges, 
were worth $589,266. Yet hardly a third of the land was 
under cultivation. The number of the adherents of the 
Free Church was 16,000, of the Wesleyan Church 2,000, 
and of the Roman Catholic Church, 2,000. 

In the year 1898 a Commissioner of Germany made 
demands on the Tongan Government for a considerable 
amount of money, alleged to be due German traders, and 
it was rumored that a German warship was on the way to 
enforce the demands. The King then sent an agent to 
Governor Thurston applying for a British Protectorate 
over Tonga. The Governor immediately despatched a 
warship which paid the German claims, and on October 
14, 1898 proclaimed the British Protectorate over the 
group. 



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NEW ZEALAND. 263 



CHAPTER XIII. 

NEW ZEALAND. 

Although New Zealand is situated almost at our 
antipodes, where the North Star, the Great Bear and 
other constellations that are constantly familiar to us 
are lost to view, while the Southern Cross and Magellan 
Clouds are almost overhead and the frosty breath of the 
antarctic zone blows keen in the face, it has become like 
a near neighbor by the improved facilities of trade and 
travel, and is of peculiar interest to us because of having 
a similar Anglo-Saxon people, a similar civilization, and 
probably a similar destiny. In this sketch of missions 
an account of New Zealand is needed for a completion 
of the mission history of the Polynesian race, and for an 
illustration of the influence of missions on the foreign 
populations in the Pacific, and it is interesting to pass 
from consideration of the little palm-fringed islands of 
volcanic or coral formation to that of a country which is 
of almost continental proportions and characteristics, 
and has the climate and productions of the temperate 
zone. 

New Zealand lies between the parallels of 34 1 5' and 
47° 30' south latitude, and the meridians 166 and 179 
east longitude, and about 8,000 miles southwest of San 
Francisco and 1,200 southeast of Australia. Its area is 
101,500 square miles, one-sixth less than that of Great 



264 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Britain and Ireland. Of this area 12,000,000 acres are 
arable and 50,000,000 fit for pasturage. 

New Zealand consists of three islands : the Northern 
Island, 500 miles long and from five to 300 broad, con- 
taining 44,000 square miles; the Middle or Southern 
Island, 550 miles long, with an average breadth of no 
miles, containing 55,000 square miles; and Stewart Isl- 
and, 30 miles in diameter, having an area of 800 square 
miles. These islands combined have been compared to 
a boot with the toe turned north, also to Italy, which 
they nearly equal in area. 

In New Zealand we find the volcanic rocks of the 
Pacific Islands mingled with the metamorphic and sed- 
imentary strata of the continents. These strata contain 
slate, sandstone, limestone, coal, copper, silver and gold. 
In the North and South Islands gold has been success- 
fully mined by hydraulic processes. 

The chief feature of New Zealand is the grand range 
of mountains which runs parallel with its western 
coasts. In Stewart Island these mountains reach an 
altitude of 3, 200 feet ; in South Island they reach their 
greatest height in Mount Cook, 13,200 feet high, near 
which are many peaks of nearly the same height ; in the 
North Island the highest mountain is Ruapahu, 9,100 
feet high, which rises into perpetual snow, and has one 
peak, Tangariro, that is an active volcano, 7,000 feet 
high. Further south is Mount Egmont, 8,270 feet high, 
a perfect cone capped with snow. 

In the southwestern part of the South Island the great 
arms of the Southern Ocean have extended far up into 



New Zealand. 26$ 

the wild solitudes of this mountain range ; and here is 
the grandest scenery of this country. One of these in- 
lets, called Milford Sound, ' ' three miles from its entrance 
contracts to the width of half a mile, and its sides rise 
perpendicularly from the water's edge 2,000 feet, and 
then slope at a high angle to peaks that are covered 
with perpetual snow. Further inland the sound becomes 
more expanded and receives several large valleys that ra- 
diate in different directions into the highest ranges. 
Immediately above rises Pembroke Peak to the height of 
nearly 7,000 feet, covered with perpetual snow, and with 
a glacier reaching down to within 2,000 feet of the sea. 
The lower slopes of this mountain are covered with fine 
trees and with luxuriant and evergreen foliage of the 
tree-fern and other beautiful undergrowth of the New 
Zealand forests. Two permanent waterfalls, one 700 
and the other 540 feet in height, add picturesque beauty 
to the gloomy and desolate grandeur of the upper part 
of this sound. " (Dr. Hector. ) 

The lower portion of this mountain range is covered 
with noble forests of pine and other valuable trees ; and 
further down on their eastern side are large lakes ; one 
of which, in South Island, Lake Wakitipu, is sixty miles 
long and has two flourishing towns on its banks and 
several steamers plying between them. In North Island 
is Lake Taupo, which measures thirty by twenty miles, 
and has one small island, Motu Taiko, of extreme beau- 
ty, in the centre. On this island are also the Roturua 
lakes, sixteen in number, among which is the Rotoma- 
hana Lake (warm lake), one mile long, with water at 



Z66 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

the temperature of 90 . Here also are geysers, which 
eject water two degrees above the boiling point, holding 
silicates in solution, and also the "bathing-place," 
which is described as "terraces of soft friable stone de- 
posited by water streaming down from hot pools above. 
These terraces, white and pink, three hundred feet in 
width, rise two hundred feet. As you ascend you step 
along a raised fret- work of stone as fine as chased silver. 
In the terraces are smooth alabaster-like bathing pools, 
three to four feet deep, formed by silica, and above are 
wonderful overhanging cornices formed by the drip." 
Recently this ' ' bathing-place " has been broken up by 
earthquakes ; but new depositions of silica are forming 
it again. 

From these lakes stretch extensive plains to the 
ocean. These plains were originally covered with native 
grasses and ferns, but are now cultivated with grain or 
planted with English grasses and clovers for pasturage. 
Where formerly hardly one sheep to the acre could be 
pastured on the native grasses, now from five to seven 
sheep to the acre are kept on English grasses. The soil 
is generally lighter and better than that of Great Britain. 
In some places it contains iron, and as much as seventy 
per. cent of iron has been extracted from the ore. 

The flora of New Zealand consists of one thousand 
species of plants, which have affinities with those of Au- 
stralia, Polynesia, and South America. The most con- 
spicuous trees are the coniferae, of which the most re- 
markable is the Kauri pine (dammar a australis), which 
is found in the northern part of the North Island. It is 



NEW ZEALAND. 267 

sometimes forty feet in circumference, and rises nine- 
ty feet before its branches begin, and lifts its head above 
the rest of the forest sometimes to the height of two 
hundred feet above the ground. The gum which has 
collected in the ground from ancient forests of this tree 
is much sought after for use in glazing calico and for a 
substitute for copal-varnish, and is worth from eight to 
ten dollars per hundred pounds. Almost all the other 
trees are evergreen. The puriki tree resembles teak and 
rivals the English oak, and is said to be almost as im- 
perishable as stone. Splendid flowering trees abound, 
among which are the rata (meirosideros robusfa), like 
the Hawaiian ohia, which are gorgeous with dazzling 
scarlet blossoms, and the kowhai (Edwardia microphylla), 
which has yellow papilionaceous flowers. The chief 
ornaments of the forest are the tree ferns (Dicksonia and 
cyafkea), which rise thirty feet in height, the palms 
(areca sapida), which rear their green crowns in pic- 
turesque majesty throughout the whole length of the 
islands, and the vines " which entwine the topmost 
branches of trees in gordian knots." One writer says, 
"There were convolvuli and clematis and passiflorae 
festooning the branches with their light garlands, and 
enormous brambles, covered with wild roses, clamber- 
ing up to the summits of some tall tree and toppling 
down again in a cascade of bloom." Two of the 
vines are very troublesome, the ripogonum parviflorum, a 
rope-like vine which entangles the traveller, and the 
rubus australis, the thorny strings of which scratch the 
face and are therefore called "bush-lawyers." In the 



268 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

open grounds are to be seen species of viola, primula, 
ranunculus, and, to the delight of Englishmen, daisies 
{microcalis ausiralis). 

The climate of New Zealand has been compared to 
that of England with the seasons reversed, but is more 
rainy and windy. January is the hottest and driest 
month of the year, July the coolest and most rainy. 
Winds blowing from the northwest bring rain to all the 
islands, and sometimes snow for a few hours to the 
South Island. In Auckland the rainfall in 1882 was 
forty-five inches, in Wellington fifty-five inches. The 
average temperature of the North Island is 57 F., that 
of the South Island 52 , while that of London is 51 . 
The salubrity of the climate is shown by the fact that, 
while the average mortality of British soldiers quartered 
in Great Britain has been 16 to 1,000, here it has been 
5 to 1,000. 

Like the island of Saint Patrick, New Zealand has no 
snakes ; and, like most of the Pacific Islands, it formerly 
had no quadrupeds but dogs, swine, and rats. An 
enormous wingless bird, called the moa, the skeletons 
of which have been found measuring thirteen feet in 
height, once abounded. 

A romantic interest attaches to the origin of the abo- 
rigines, the Maoris, of New Zealand. Tourists readily 
perceive that in physical characteristics, in language, 
customs and traditions, they are the same race that in- 
habits the other Pacific Islands even as far north as Ha- 
waii. The resemblance of their language to that of 
Hawaii is very striking. To best observe this, it must 




A New Zealand Chief. 



NEW ZEALAND. 269 

be noted that among Polynesian tribes the letters 1 and r 
are interchangeable, as also k and t, and that the letter k 
when found between vowels is often dropped in Hawaii. 
Thus the New Zealand word ariki (chief) becomes alii in 
Hawaii, and the word atua (god), akua, and Hawaiki be- 
comes Hawaii. 

The Maoris claim that they emigrated from Hawaiki, 
doubtless meaning Savaii (of the Samoa group) and 
from Rarotonga (of the Hervey group), and Pirima and 
Manono (of the Samoa group). Their tradition is that 
about the year 1400 A. D., as it is estimated from their 
genealogies of their kings, two chiefs fled in canoes from 
Samoa on account of war, and were driven by stormy 
weather to New Zealand, and returning brought eight 
hundred of their countrymen in twenty canoes to the 
splendid islands they had discovered. 

A detailed description of the customs and supersti- 
tions of the Maoris would be little more than a repeti- 
tion of what has been narrated of the peoples of the 
other Pacific islands. Suffice it to say that they wor- 
shipped three chief gods, Tane, Ra and Tangaroa, cor- 
responding to Kane, Ka and Kaneloa of Hawaii, and to 
supposed deities of similar names in most of the other 
islands of the Pacific ; that, like other Polynesians, they 
imposed on themselves the restrictions of tabu, practiced 
sorcery, tattooed their bodies, and were cannibals. The 
stories of their cannibalism are revolting. They differed 
from the other Polynesians in that, besides feasting on 
enemies who were killed in battle, they specially fattened 
slaves for their feasts. A poor slave girl would some- 



270 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

times be commanded by her master to fetch fuel, light a 
fire, and heat an oven, and then would be knocked in 
the head and cast into the oven. One cannibal testi- 
fied that, when he first heard the missionaries speak of 
the sinfulness of eating human flesh, he thought their 
words were very foolish, and questioned whether it was 
any more wicked to eat a man than a dog, or pig, or any 
other animal ; but remembering the words he did not 
relish his next cannibal feast, and finally loathed the 
sight of such food and became a Christian. 

The Maoris had a singular custom, called muru, of 
showing sympathy for each other in misfortunes by rob- 
bing each other of property. If a man's wife ran away, 
or his child got his leg broken, or any other calamity 
came upon him, a taua (multitude) of his neighbors 
would kindly call on him, and in condolence eat all his 
food and carry away all his goods. This prevented the 
accumulation of property. 

The Maoris dressed in shaggy mats made of flax (the 
phormium tenax, which was a flag-like plant with sword- 
shaped drooping leaves). Their food consisted chiefly of 
fern roots (the pteris esculenta), also of palm shoots and 
kumera (the sweet potato), but they ate little meat. 
They cooked their food by burying it, wrapped in leaves 
with heated stones, in the ground. They made no use 
of the metals which abounded in their country, but used 
stone adzes with surprising skill. 

In comparison with the degraded Australians and the 
natives of the New Hebrides they were a noble race. 
Their average height was the same as that of Europeans, 



NEW ZEALAND. 2/1 

five feet and six inches. Rev. Samuel Marsden, founder 
of the missions in New Zealand, said of them : "They 
are vastly superior in understanding to anything you can 
imagine of a savage nation. " Sir Anthony Trollope has 
written that ' ' they are more pliable and nearer akin in 
their manners to civilized mankind than are the Ameri- 
can Indians, and more manly, more courteous, as well 
as more sagacious than the African negro. " The British 
military officers have testified that in war, when supplied 
with firearms, they were fully a match for the best disci- 
plined English troops. In defense of the fortification 
Gate Pah, 300 of them repulsed 1,600 English soldiers. 

Like the other Polynesians, the Maoris have melted 
away as they have come into contact with foreign races. 
In 1769 it was estimated that they numbered several 
hundred thousands. By the census of 1888 they now 
number only 42,000, while the foreign population of 
New Zealand is 607,380. 

The Europeans who first visited New Zealand, with a 
few exceptions, were in character as uncouth, repulsive 
and terrible as the Maoris in physical appearance. Some 
of these Europeans were not a little amused when Maoris 
shrank away in horror on first seeing their own likenesses 
reflected in looking-glasses, but the abhorrence they felt 
for the Maori in his paint, tattoo and grotesque head- 
gear might well have been felt for themselves in their 
reckless avarice, lust and cruelty. Our first accounts of 
New Zealand are of wanton outrages committed by these 
foreigners on the natives, and of dreadful retaliations 
made by the natives. The first discoverer, the Dutch' 



272 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

man Abel Tasman, on anchoring, September 18, 1642, 
near Nelson, of the Middle Island, got into a conflict 
with the natives and killed several of them, and they in 
return killed four of his men. For this reason he named 
this port Massacre Bay, but the group he named New 
Zealand, after his own country. In 1769 Capt. Cook 
arrived at these islands and announced that he took 
possession of them for Britain. Three years afterwards 
the French captain Marion du Fresne arrived with two 
ships in the Bay of Islands, and because of cruel outra- 
ges committed by him on chiefs was killed, with twenty- 
five of his men. In 1809 the captain of the British ship 
Boyd, having flogged a chief, was killed with his crew 
and passengers, seventy in number. In later times 
escaped convicts from Botany Bay led lives of horrible 
lust and cruelty among the natives ; and finally, as will 
be more particularly recounted in another part of this 
chapter, the great British Colonization Company was 
extremely lawless, and occasioned fierce and destructive 
wars. 

One agency alone has operated for the welfare of the 
Maoris as well as for that of the foreign population of 
New Zealand : the Missionary Society. The first mission 
in New Zealand was originated by Rev. Samuel Marsden, 
who in 1792 went as chaplain to Port Jackson, of the 
penal colony of New South Wales. His attention was 
drawn to New Zealand by the Maoris, who as seamen 
occasionally visited Port Jackson and greatly impressed 
him with their superiority to the Papuans. While the 
common cry was that the Maoris should be extermina- 



NEW ZEALAND. 273 

ted, he built a hut in his parsonage for their accommo- 
dation. To most of the residents of Port Jackson the 
coming of these Maoris was about as alarming as the 
coming of savages was to Robinson Crusoe ; and it was 
an exercise of no ordinary philanthropy for Mr. Marsden 
not merely to treat them kindly when he casually met 
them, but to bring them to occupy a home at his very 
door. He often had as many as thirty staying with him 
at one time. In 1807 he went to England and persua- 
ded the Church Mission Society to undertake a mission 
to this people, and returned with two missionaries : Mr. 
William Hall, a carpenter, and Mr. John King, a shoe- 
maker and ropemaker. These men were selected that 
they might teach the natives the industrial arts ; but it 
was afterwards discovered that evangelization must pre- 
cede civilization. 

As Mr. Marsden with these missionaries embarked 
from England on the 25th of August, 1809, on the ship 
Ann, they observed a Maori chief, Ruatara, sitting dis- 
consolate, and evidently very ill, on the forecastle of the 
ship. This chief had left home as a seaman in order to 
see the world, and had been badly abused by captains of 
ships. A short time before he had been put ashore with 
a few other men at Bounty Island, east of New Zealand, 
to collect sealskins, under the assurance that he would 
be taken off in a few days, but he was left there ten 
months ; and when the faithless captain rescued him 
three of his companions had perished of starvation. He 
had collected eight thousand sealskins, and with these 
was taken to England and then was turned adrift. Mr. 



274 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Marsden most kindly befriended him, and thereby 
gained a kind reception for his missionaries in New Zea- 
land. 

On their arrival at Port Jackson they heard of the 
massacre of the crew and passengers of the Boyd, and that 
afterwards whalers had taken vengeance on the natives. 
Ruatara's uncle had been killed, and a war had thereby 
been occasioned between the tribes of natives. Ruatara 
therefore took passage on a ship to investigate whether 
missionaries would be received ; but the captain with 
whom he embarked refused to land him when he was in 
sight of his home, and he was tossed about in rough 
seafaring life nearly two years before he arrived among 
his people, from whom he had then been absent seven 
years. The accounts he gave of the wonders he had 
seen in foreign lands, especially of horse-riding, were too 
much for the belief of his people ; but they were per- 
suaded to send invitations for missionaries to reside 
among them. 

When at last he returned to Port Jackson Mr. Mars- 
den at his own risk purchased a little brig, the Active, 
for $10,000, and embarked on the 28th of November, 
1 8 14, for New Zealand with three missionaries and their 
wives and three Maori chiefs, among whom was this 
Ruatara. Arriving off the northeast coast of New Zea- 
land, at Whangaroa, within forty miles of Rangihoua, 
Ruatara's home, they learned from natives in canoes that 
there was a feud, originated from the massacre of the 
Boyd, between the natives of this region and Ruatara's 
tribe. Mr. Marsden therefore landed with the chiefs to 



NEW ZEALAND. 275 

sue for peace, and sent Ruatara before, to a body of 
armed men, to apply for a friendly interview. A woman 
then came forward waving a red mat and exclaiming, 
" Haeremai" " Come hither " (Hawaiian, Helemai). In 
compliance with this invitation they then went forward, 
and found the chiefs sitting, with warriors holding spears 
twenty feet in length standing around them. The chiefs 
were dressed in handsome mats, had their hair tied in 
top-knots ornamented with long white feathers, and 
wore around their necks the dollars taken from the Boyd. 
The warriors now brandished their spears with frightful 
yells, and sprang around Mr. Marsden and his compan- 
ions in a menacing war-dance which was meant for a 
welcome. Mr. Marsden remained over night with them 
and persuaded them to make peace. 

Before reaching Ruatara's home, which was on the 
northwest side of the Bay of Islands, one of the chiefs 
went ashore to prepare for their reception ; and as they 
drew near ten war canoes came off, and bore swiftly 
upon them, and gave them a welcome of war-cries, 
shrieks, and threatening gesticulations. 

As they landed on Sunday, December 25, 18 14, they 
were surprised to find that Ruatara had with great inge- 
nuity prepared for a religious meeting. He had enclosed 
about half an acre of land with a fence, erected in the 
centre a pulpit covered with black mats, arranged canoes 
on each side as seats for the white men, rigged a flagstaff, 
and hoisted the British flag. Mr. Marsden preached 
from the text, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of 
great joy ;" and the sermon was interpreted by Ruatara. 



2j6 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Mr. Marsden had brought a horse, which he now 
took ashore, mounted and rode, to the utter astonish- 
ment of the natives. He had also brought a grist mill, 
and now ground some wheat, that had been raised by 
Ruatara, and made flour and bread, and thereby con- 
vinced the natives that Ruatara's reports of foreign lands 
were true, and won golden opinions for the mission- 
aries. 

Subsequently the missionaries had the usual expe- 
riences of missionaries in the Pacific, of losses of proper- 
ty by thefts and robberies, lack of food, when the natives 
would take nothing but fire-arms or ammunition as pay 
for provisions, and perils from intertribal wars. They 
were obliged to constantly watch the natives who came 
to visit them ; but ' ' in spite of their vigilance, tools, 
ropes, knives, wearing apparel, blankets, etc., disap- 
peared ; and two volumes of Milner's Church History 
were taken and converted into New Zealand cartridges. " 

In order to provide more reliable supplies of food 
than could be obtained from the natives or from ships 
they enclosed and cultivated about ten acres of land, 
planting wheat, barley, oats and vegetables. They also 
set out fruit trees, peaches, apricots, oranges and lem- 
ons, which in a few years bore abundance of fruit ; and 
they taught the natives to do similar work for them- 
selves. 

As more missionaries were expected to arrive from 
England they explored the surrounding country to se- 
lect places for new mission stations. Once in their ex- 
peditions they went by boat up the Kerikeri River at a 




A Maori Woman of New Zealand. 



NEW ZEALAND. 277 

time when that river was tabued by the kahunga, priest, 
(Hawaiian, kahuna). "The indignant natives dragged 
the boat ashore, plundered it of its contents, and hastily 
swallowed jams and medicines. The unpleasant conse- 
quences convinced them that the rnana, power, of the 
pakeka, foreigner, was too strong for their gods, and that 
the tabu did not apply to the missionaries/' 

In 181 9, at the request of the natives, another settle- 
ment was made nine miles distant, on the banks of the 
Kerikeri River, five miles from its mouth, near a water- 
fall called Waiani-waniwa (rainbow) ; and in August, 
1823, another settlement on the south side of the bay, 
at Paihia, "a beautiful spot of three hundred acres of 
level ground sheltered in an amphitheatre of fern- 
clad and wooded hills, with a view of the bay near 
by, and of three small rocky islands covered with foli- 
age." 

In 1820 the chief of the Ngapui tribe, Hongi Hika, 
one of the most formidable Maori warriors, called the 
' * Napoleon of New Zealand, " went to England, hoping 
to obtain weapons with which to make himself monarch 
of all New Zealand. Though he failed to obtain the 
supply of weapons he wished, he started off, as soon as 
he returned, on war expeditions, and soon brought home 
two thousand captives, chiefly women and children, of 
part of whom he made a cannibal feast. 

In 1827 he again started on the war-path and at- 
tacked Whangaroa, where the Wesleyans, in 1821, had 
established a mission station at Kaeo, and where now 
Rev. Nathaniel Turner and his family were residing. 



278 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

As usual, he was victorious ; and then he attacked the 
Wesleyan settlement and plundered and burned it. Mr. 
Turner and his wife and three children, the youngest of 
whom was five weeks old, fled in the night through the 
woods twenty miles, to Kerikeri, and were met by the 
Episcopal missionary, Rev. Henry Williams, and kindly 
cared for. Hongi now horrified the missionaries at 
Kerikeri by cannibal feasts in celebration of his victo- 
ries. 

Soon afterwards the missionaries, Williams and Da- 
vis, boldly ventured among the warring tribes and per- 
suaded their chiefs to forego the usual exaction of uku, 
redress, and to make peace. All the Methodist mission- 
aries had fled to New South Wales ; and now they re- 
turned and resumed their work. 

About this time a beautiful illustration was afforded 
of the far-reaching influence of the Tahiti mission. ' ' A 
Christian chief from Tahiti arrived at Kerikeri, and as 
his native tongue was so similar to that of the Maoris as 
to allow of free communication he readily acceded to the 
request of the missionaries to address their people. With 
his Bible in his hand this once blinded idolater stood be- 
fore the assembled group ; his face beamed with love, 
his voice trembled with emotion, while he read to them 
John 3 : 16 and 17, and told them of what Tahiti had 
been and what it now was. As he spoke to them of 
the mighty change that had been wrought upon himself 
and his countrymen every eye was rivetted on him ; and 
as he urged them to turn to God, and prayed that the 
Holy Spirit might lead them to the Saviour, the mission- 



NEW ZEALAND. 279 

ary felt an earnest hope that his exhortations and pray- 
ers would be blessed and answered." 

It was ten years after the inception of the mission 
when the first genuine success was realized in the con- 
version of natives. One of the first converts was a slave, 
Dudidudi, who made Christian confession on his death- 
bed. On the 23d of August, 1830, the first public adult 
baptism took place when, at Paihia, the chief Taiwunga 
and two other natives were baptized. Before the end of 
this year thirteen more natives were received into the 
church at this place. The people had now generally 
given up their intertribal wars, and were much inter- 
ested in agricultural pursuits ; and the number of Chris- 
tian converts rapidly increased. New mission stations 
were now formed, one, in 1831, at Waimate, twelve miles 
inland from Kerikeri, another, in 1834, at Kaitaia on the 
western coast, forty miles northwest from Waimate, and 
another at Kororaika, two miles from Paihia. 

The very wars of the natives were now found to have 
singularly aided in spreading Christianity. Thus a 
Christian girl, who had been captured in war, and con- 
veyed to Waima near Hokianga, and made a slave of the 
chief Tawai, who was a fierce enemy of the Christian 
tribe, continued to repeat her prayers and catechisms, 
though her master threatened to shoot her if she per- 
sisted, and thereby influenced him to accept Christianity 
and welcome missionaries. Thus also three Christian 
lads, who were taken captive to Puriri on the Thames at 
the Bay of Islands, gave Christian instruction to their 
captors; and when in October, 1833, a company of 



280 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

missionaries, consisting of Rev. H. Williams, Rev. A. N. 
Brown, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Fairchild, on a voyage of 
exploration up the Thames, landed at this place, and 
attempted to sing a hymn in a gathering of 200 natives, 
the whole multitude to their great surprise joined with 
them, singing the words and tune correctly, and after- 
wards repeated in unison with them the Lord's Prayer. 
The missionaries now ascertained how these three boys 
had done missionary work, and they located two mis- 
sionaries here. 

Quite as remarkable was the beginning of a mission 
station through the influence of wandering natives at 
Kapiti, in Cook's Straits at the south part of the island. 
The chief of this district, Rauparaha, son of one of the 
most formidable warriors, found a prayer-book, a cate- 
chism, and part of a torn gospel of Luke, in the keeping 
of some of his people, who had visited the missionaries 
and had been taught by them, and with great curiosity 
employed one of them to read these books to him. He 
at once accepted the truths of Christianity and led his 
people to do the same ; and so eager did he now become 
to gain instruction directly from the lips of the white 
men that he took passage on a ship to Waimate and 
visited Mr. Williams and applied for a missionary for his 
tribe. Hearing of his request, Rev. Octavius Hadfield 
volunteered to go with him, and soon afterwards with 
Mr. Williams accompanied him to Kapiti. They found 
that already, in their heathen darkness, these natives had 
erected a church lined with reeds, and were assembled 
within to the number of 1,200 to hear their preaching. 



NEW ZEALAND. 28 1 

Six months afterwards Mr. Hadfield baptized twenty of 
these natives, among whom was Rauparaha and another 
chief. 

In like manner an interest to learn about Christianity 
was awakened at Otaki by a single page of a catechism 
that was taken thither by a native. The chief of this re- 
gion inquired what "the black marks" on this page 
meant, and found a native who could read them. The 
page contained the Ten Commandments. The chief was 
deeply impressed by hearing them read, renounced his 
false gods, commenced observing the Sabbath, and 
endeavored to live as God required. Not long af- 
terwards he joyfully received missionaries. A church 
eighty feet long, thirty-six wide and forty high was 
now built here. Its principal beam was dragged 
twelve miles, from the depth of the forest — the choicest 
tree there. 

With these successes there were distressing discour- 
agements. The unprincipled crews of ships repeatedly 
committed outrages on the natives and caused fierce 
intertribal wars ; the dissolute white men living in New 
Zealand warned the natives that the design of the mis- 
sionaries was to take them as slaves to England, and 
thereby for a while estranged some of the chiefs from the 
missionaries; and when at length, in 1838, the mission 
work had made residence in New Zealand safe and 
delightful a Romish bishop and his priests arrived, 
"following the missionaries like spirits of evil, and 
spared neither pains nor money to make proselytes." 
Their influence was more seriously exerted afterwards, 



282 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

during the war against the English government in excit- 
ing rebellion and attacks upon the missionaries. 

But, in spite of these difficulties, by the year 1845 
nearly all the tribes of New Zealand had renounced idol- 
atry and accepted Christianity. Schools and churches 
had been established in every district and several col- 
legiate institutions organized for giving the natives high 
education ; and agriculture, the care of flocks and herds, 
and other peaceful industries, were taking the place of 
war, pagan carousals, and cannibalism. 

And now occurred the unhappy civil war, that for 
a while paralyzed the mission enterprise, and occasioned 
the destruction of multitudes of the Maoris as well as of 
British colonists ; after which there was a rapid settle- 
ment of the country by foreigners, till now the few 
remaining Maoris are almost lost to view in the great 
population of Anglo Saxons. A brief account of the 
origin of the British Colony and of this war is necessary, 
to show how different were the operations of the mission 
from those of a mercenary society, and how the mission 
ever worked for the welfare of the natives as well as for 
that of the foreign population. 

In 1825 a company was formed in England by Lord 
Durham to buy land in New Zealand and send settlers 
thither. The missionaries warned the British govern- 
ment against giving this company a charter, lest it should 
trample on the rights of the natives ; and no charter was 
given till 1839. This company, failing to receive a 
charter, undertook colonization in defiance of the 
Crown, and sold New Zealand land by lottery in Eng- 



NEW ZEALAND. 283 

land to the value of 1500,000, and sent ships loaded 
with emigrants to New Zealand. But it soon was real- 
ized that some governing power was necessary for the 
colony ; and therefore, before leaving England, the emi- 
grants entered into a mutual compact for their govern- 
ment. But they were warned by the English court that 
in so doing they were usurping the functions of the 
British Crown and were liable to arrest. To obviate 
this difficulty, on arriving at Port Nicholson they called 
together the native chiefs, and went through the form of 
having them adopt their Contract of Government. 

All now went well for a while. ' ' The natives were 
delighted to have the pakehas, foreigners, among them ; 
for the pakehas were good traders, and brought utensils, 
clothes, guns, and gun-powder, for which the natives 
exchanged flax, kauri-gum, and whale and seal oil." 
But presently the natives asserted their rights to the 
lands on which the colonists settled, and "which the 
New Zealand Company had bought, with guns, looking- 
glasses, shaving-brushes and pocket-handkerchiefs, of 
chiefs who had no authority to sell and did not under- 
stand the sale." The settlers, being ignorant of native 
law of property, viewed these claims as mere pretexts for 
extortion and violence, but were driven by the natives to 
a narrow tract of land of the projected town of Welling- 
ton. 

And now by suggestion of the missionaries the British 
government interposed to adjust these difficulties, and in 
1839 proclaimed New Zealand a part of the colony of 
New South Wales, and sent thither Capt. Hobson as 



284 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

lieutenant governor, there being then 1,000 Europeans 
in New Zealand. 

In 1840 Capt. Hobson collected forty-six Maori 
chiefs at Waitangi, on the Bay of Islands, and proposed 
a treaty by which it would be stipulated that the natives 
owed allegiance to the British queen ; that the natives 
owned the land, and that the queen would protect the 
natives. Some Romish priests made great efforts to 
prevent the chiefs from signing this treaty, but the mis- 
sionaries advised them to sign it ; and in confidence in 
the missionaries they finally did so, in February, 1840, 
and thus New Zealand became a British province. 

The chiefs however did not realize that in ceding 
their sovereignty to England they thereby gave power to 
abrogate their own customs, to impose new laws, and to 
determine the ownership of their lands. When therefore 
the new government proceeded to try criminals in 
British courts, and to impose tariffs on articles of com- 
merce, and the settlers demanded the lands which they 
claimed by purchase from the New Zealand Company, 
the natives were excited to resist. 

The New Zealand Company claimed to have bought 
of the natives 20,000,000 acres ; nearly one-third of New 
Zealand. The settlers now urged the government to ap- 
propriate the waste lands of the country and provide 
them with homesteads. But the natives regarded no 
lands as waste, claiming the forests for their birds and 
the swamps and streams for their fish, and they carefully 
handed down titles for this land from father to son. The 
British government refused to break faith with the natives 




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NEW ZEALAND. 285 

by violating the treaty of Waitangi, and therefore appoint- 
ed a commission to examine the documents of purchase 
of land held by the New Zealand Company, and soon 
the possessions of that company were reduced to 282,000 
acres. The natives contested this decision, and a further 
reduction was made to 3, 500 acres. 

And now, to prevent such a settlement as this, the 
New Zealand Company precipitated a conflict with the 
natives that would have been prevented if the processes 
of the government had not been interrupted. In July, 
1843, tn i s company sent surveyors to lay out tracts of 
1 50 acres for immigrants in the South Island at Wairau 
Valley, in Cloudy Bay District, seventy miles from Nel- 
son. The natives protested against this appropriation of 
their lands without the action of the courts, and sent 
their women to pull up the surveyors' stakes and flags 
and to cut their chain. Two powerful chiefs of this re- 
gion, Rauparaha and Rangiata, now went to Porirua, on 
the north side of Cook's Strait, and urged the land com- 
missioner, Mr. Spain, to settle the dispute, and he 
agreed to do so in a few months. They then returned to 
Cloudy Bay and ordered the surveyors to leave, and 
burned their hut. The surveyors reported their conduct 
at Nelson ; and the police magistrate, Mr. Thompson, 
issued a warrant for their arrest for burning the hut, and 
with a company of soldiers went to enforce the warrant. 
The chiefs insisted on deferring these matters of dispute 
to the coming of Mr. Spain ; whereupon Mr. Thompson 
threatened to fire on them if they persisted in refusing to 
surrender themselves in arrest, and ordered his troops to 



286 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

fix bayonets and advance. Shots were then fired by the 
troops, and the wife of the chief Rangiata was killed. 
The natives then rushed upon the Europeans, and the 
most of these turned in flight, while a few of them re- 
mained, throwing down their arms and urging that there 
should be no battle. But Rangiata was enraged at the 
murder of his wife and called for vengeance ; and then 
the natives killed twenty-four of the Europeans and 
wounded four more, while four of their own number 
were killed. This began the destructive wars between 
the Maoris and the English in New Zealand. 

Ten years after this event a committee of the New 
Zealand House of Representatives reported that the con- 
duct of the New Zealand Company on this occasion, in 
thrusting forward its surveyors regardless of the courts 
and forcing this affray, was the cause of the war in New 
Zealand. Rev. Richard Taylor has remarked that "this 
war began for nothing which an ordinary law court could 
not have decided — the question whether one party had a 
right to what the other wanted to buy or not. " 

The massacre of the British in this affray sent a thrill 
of horror through Europe. The enlistment of emigrants 
for New Zealand now ceased. The newspapers of Paris 
even proposed that, instead of sending out more settlers, 
they should raise benevolent contributions to bring back 
to England those then remaining in New Zealand. The 
missionaries were compromised by this affray, as well as 
by all the subsequent wars, since they had advised acqui- 
escence in the treaty propositions of England ; and noth- 
ing but the confidence of the natives in their integrity 



NEW ZEALAND. 287 

saved them from serious trouble, while their work was 
sadly interrupted. 

From the conduct of the British soldiers in this affray 
the natives formed a low estimate of their prowess, and 
afterwards did not hesitate to assert their rights by force. 
Immediately after this fight at Wairau the two chiefs 
crossed over to the North Island and prepared to attack 
the settlement at Wellington. There were no troops at 
that time at Wellington, nor could any be obtained under 
a month from Auckland, five hundred miles distant. The 
chiefs refused to grant an armistice, and only by the in- 
fluence of the missionary, Rev. Octavius Hadfield, of 
Kapiti, were dissuaded from destroying the community 
of Wellington. 

So bitter did the natives now become against the 
British, because of their claims for land and because of 
tariffs imposed on articles of commerce, that one of their 
chiefs, John Heke, three times cut down the British flag- 
staff at Kororeka in the Bay of Islands, the last time with 
a battle in which the British troops were obliged to flee 
to their ships. The governor now sent troops against 
Heke and his followers ; many tribes combined with 
Heke and a few with the British, and thus the war ex- 
tended over nearly all New Zealand. 

In June, 1848, the natives chose one of their num- 
ber, the head chief of Waikato, Te Wherowero, as king, 
under the title Potatau I. In proclaiming him king 
they raised a flag of a cross, three stars, and the name of 
the country, Niu Tirini, in the centre, read a chapter of 
the New Testament, offered prayer, and fired volleys of 



288 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

musketry. Under this king they entered into a league to 
sell no land to the white people ; ' ' to prevent the run- 
ning off of the fresh water into the salt." They an- 
nounced as their sentiment, "The king on his land, the 
queen on her land, God over both, and love binding 
them together." They wrote to the governor advising 
that all the forces engaged in the war should be dis- 
banded and the difficulties arbitrated by the queen ; 
but the advice was rejected. 

A small portion of the natives now formed a religious 
sect which was called by the white people ' •' Hauhaus " 
from the resemblance of its noise to the barking of dogs, 
and by the natives Pai-mariri. It was allied with the 
Roman-catholics, and its chief idea was hostility to the 
British and to Protestantism. Its worship consisted in 
the practice of mesmerism, in dancing around a pole, 
and calling on the Virgin Mary. At the instigation of 
the Roman priests its members burned Bibles and mur- 
dered the Protestant missionary, Rev. Mr. Volkner, and 
placed his head on the pulpit of the papal church. 

The natives fought against the British with great 
bravery and skill, in fortifications called pahs, which 
were surrounded with palisades, and inside the palisades 
with a deep ditch, in which they were able to avoid bul- 
lets. When defeated they simply retreated to other 
pahs, and surrendered only at last when driven to the 
end of the valleys and almost exterminated. Repeat- 
edly they repulsed many times their number of British 
troops. 

Three wars were waged, each on account of claims 



NEW ZEALAND. 289 

for land ; and finally, in i860, through the mediation of 
the missionaries, peace was established. Ten thousand 
British soldiers were engaged in these wars, and one- 
third of them were killed. The cost of these wars was 
$60,000,000. 

After these wars the government confiscated 4,000,- 
000 acres of the Maoris'. Governor Gray then forced a 
measure through the New Zealand Parliament for paying 
the New Zealand Company $1,000,000 for a surrender of 
its charter. This payment and the expenses of the war 
brought a heavy burden of taxation on the colony j and 
this burden was subsequently increased by loans of 
$95,000,000 procured from the Bank of England at four 
per cent, for building railroads, telegraphs, and other 
public works, for purchasing land, and for aiding immi- 
gration. In 1883 the gross debt was $151,785,555. 

In 1852 the British government set off New Zealand 
as a separate colony from New South Wales, and divided 
it into six districts — viz., Auckland, Taranaki, Welling- 
ton, Nelson, Canterbury and Otago — and gave it a Con- 
stitution of government. This Constitution provided for 
a governor appointed by the Crown, a legislative council 
of members appointive for life as lords by the governor, 
a house of representatives elective by the people voting 
on a small property qualification, a cabinet of ministers 
appointive by the governor but removable by the house 
of representatives by a vote of want of confidence, and 
the government by each district of its own local affairs. 
It has been the aim of the British government to govern 
the Maoris in a paternal way, as they are unfit for exer- 



29O THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

cising the elective franchise with advantage to themselves 
or to the country at large. They are allowed a repre- 
sentation of four members in the house of represent- 
atives. 

Since the termination of the wars the mission has 
prospered, schools and churches have been multiplied, 
the Maoris have largely entered into the peaceful occupa- 
tions of civilization, and have advanced from accepting 
Christianity to conveying it with marvellous heroism to 
the Solomon and Santa Cruz Islands. Forty-eight Maori 
clergymen have been ordained, and the church members 
now number more than 18,000. Their decadence in 
population, which without the influence of missions 
would have resulted almost in their extinction, has been 
checked, and now they are actually increasing in num- 
bers. Their race is gradually blending with the white 
races ; and it seems probable that at some future time 
their lineage will be discernible only by a more tropical 
hue in their complexion and a deeper black in their hair 
and eyes, and a pure-blooded Maori will be as hard to 
find as the wingless moa-birds of yore. 

The great foreign population of 600,000 people in 
New Zealand is now a prosperous Christian community. 
Notwithstanding its vast burdens of debt it is developing 
more wealth than is needed for its obligations. The 
last report of the Premier, Mr. Richard Sedden, is that 
" its financial position is impregnable ; that the estimate 
of revenue for the current year has thus far been ex- 
ceeded by actual receipts, while the expenditure is be- 
ing kept within the appropriation and the estimated 



NEW ZEALAND. 291 

surplus of the year will be fully realized ; that there is 
plenty of money to meet the requirements of the colony, 
and no further loans should be made." 

The statistics of the industries of New Zealand con- 
firm this statement. The yield of gold from 1859 to 
1893 was worth $250,000,000; the number of frozen 
sheep exported to London during the last ten years was 
13,000,000; the value of butter exported in 1893 was 
$3,062,780, the number of fine-graded sheep in the 
colony is now 20,000,000; during the year 1883 the 
total value of the exports was #30,607,235, and of the 
imports $43,046,350, indicating a commerce worth 
over $70,000,000. The population is steadily increas- 
ing. Already the chief cities have populations as fol- 
lows : Auckland, 60,000, Dunedin, 90,000, Wellington, 
the capital, 40,000, and Christchurch 30,000. 

The people of New Zealand are also making remark- 
able progress in social and political reforms. They have 
arranged to prevent, or settle, their struggles between 
labor and capital by compulsory arbitration ; to provide 
their poorer classes with work at fairly good wages in 
construction of government roads and other public im- 
provements ; to make their railroads the property of 
their government, and thus reduce the cost of freight 
and travel as low as possible ; they employ commissions 
to determine the construction of new roads and to take 
direction of such work, forbid large acquisitions of land, 
a little over 600 acres being the largest area hereafter to 
be sold to any one person ; assess taxes only on lands 
and incomes, limit suffrage by property and educational 



292 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

qualifications, and permit it to women as well as men ; 
and thus are making experiments in social and political 
methods that may well be watched with close attention 
by the older nations on our side of the globe. 

This people at our antipodes are also developing as 
remarkably in intelligence, culture and character as in 
outward prosperity. Consisting chiefly of the best 
classes of English and Scotch emigrants, they are the 
best of Great Britain's colonies, and seem destined to 
have a great future importance beside the advancing 
empires of Australia and Asia, in intercourse with the 
beautiful island world of the Pacific, and in the world- 
embracing lines of commerce. 

All this special growth and promise is to be at- 
tributed to the influence of Christian missions. It may 
be said that missionaries made the colonization of New 
Zealand possible, and secured New Zealand to Great 
Britain. Until they went unarmed among the warring 
savages, whose only intercourse with foreigners had been 
to kill or to be killed, and caused them to break their 
spears and cast away their clubs, adopt peaceful industries 
and accept heavenly rules of conduct, hardly a single Eng- 
lishman dared to make his home in New Zealand. When, 
afterwards, war broke out, they caused it to be less bar- 
barous than it would have been by the ancient customs, 
and went in and out among the contending armies and 
arranged for peace. Their influence was also to devel- 
op a Christian character of the whole foreign population 
of this country. Without their influence the coming of 
white men would have been like the beating of the icy 



NEW ZEALAND. 293 

waters and wild storms of the Antarctic zone on its 
shores ; but amidst the destructive conduct of the reck- 
less classes of men their influence was rather like the 
warm breezes that bring refreshing showers from the 
Tropics. And now the hope for the future of this coun- 
try is not so much in its amazing resources, nor in its 
vast commercial relations, nor even in its noble civiliza- 
tion, as in the character implanted by Christian missions, 
which, like the inner life of the gorgeous trees that adorn 
its coasts, must rise into a glorious future bloom and 
fruitage. 

In 189 1 the number of full-blooded and half-caste 
Maoris in New Zealand was 41,993. In 1901 it was 
43,145, there being 40,010 full-blooded Maoris, and 
3,133 half-castes. In 1906 the number of the half-castes 
and full-blooded was 47,731, there being 43,793 full- 
blooded Maoris, and 3,938 half-castes. Thus during five 
years the increase of the full-blooded Maoris was 3,938, 
and that of the half-castes 805. 

The Maori Tribe who reside in the eastern part of the 
North Island, and who are descendants of the " Hauhaus," 
and worship the Virgin Mary, are in deep poverty, 
ignorance and degradation. The other tribes have been 
under the care of Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Me- 
thodist missionaries, and are advancing in knowledge, 
industry and prosperity. Some of them compete well 
with the English youth in the colleges ; some of them 
are millionaires ; some of them are members of Parlia- 
ment ; and some of them are ministers of the Gospel. 



294 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE FIJI ISLANDS. 

Three hundred miles west of the Tongas, and the 
same distance south of the Samoas, are 250 islands, some 
of them, mere islets of coralline formation, appearing 
like groves of cocoanuts rising out of the ocean, others 
mountainous, with summits 5,000 feet in height, as at- 
tractive with perennial verdure and picturesque forms 
of vale and precipice and peak as any islands in the 
Pacific. They are the Fiji, or Viti, group. They con- 
sist of the Lau, or Windward Islands, which are a chain 
of small fertile islands on the east ; the Loma-i-viti, or 
Inner Fiji, which are the islands west of the Lau, togeth- 
er with Viti-Levu and Vanua-Levu ; and the Ra, or Lee- 
ward Islands, which are the islands further west. 

In the Lau cluster the largest island is Lakemba, 
which is only six miles in diameter, and is described as 
of surpassing beauty. Near by it is Matuka, which is 
"eminent for loveliness where all are lovely ;" also Vul- 
anga, which has a lagoon studded with islets. 

Among the Inner Fiji is the island Taviuni, twenty- 
five miles long, with a mountain 2,100 feet high, at the 
summit of which is a lake in an extinct crater. This 
island has been called "The Garden of Fiji," so covered 
is it "with luxuriance and beauty beyond the concep- 
tion of the most glowing imagination." The foliage 



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THE FIJI ISLANDS. 295 

is described as ' ' like a succession of green waterfalls ;" 
for white, blue and pink convolvuli most richly over- 
spread its trees, ferns and shrubbery. (Miss Cumming). 

In the western part of this group is Viti-Levu (Great 
Fiji), the largest of the Fijis, fifty by ninety miles, with 
mountains 5,000 feet high ; and further south Vanua- 
Levu (the Great Land), twenty-five by a hundred miles, 
on the eastern coast of which is the small island, Mbau, 
which was formerly the capital of the group. Mbau is 
about a mile long and 100 feet high, and connected 
with Vanua-Levu by a long flat of coral, which is forda- 
ble at high tide and bare at low tide. On Vanua-Levu, 
a little southwest of Mbau, is the river Rewa, which is 
navigable sixty miles, and flows into the ocean by many 
mouths, making a fertile delta of twenty square miles. 
Along its shores are extensive sugar plantations. The 
total area of the Fiji Islands is 7, 400 square miles. 

To one coming from the northern islands of the 
Pacific there is much that is new in the fauna of the Fiji 
Islands. It is interesting to find here ten varieties of 
harmless snakes, some of which are from four to six feet 
long and are used by the natives for food ; also flying- 
foxes (bats : nopteris Macdonaldii) which measure nearly 
a yard from tip to tip of their wings, and chameleons 
(chloroscartes fasciculus) two feet long, which inhabit 
trees, and frogs that abound in the swamps ; also fireflies, 
and robber-crabs {birgos latro) , which climb cocoanut 
trees and devour their nuts. 

The Fiji Islands occupy the extreme limits of the 
Malayo-Polynesian territory on the east and of the Pa- 



296 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

puan on the west. The natives are therefore a mixed 
race, part Polynesian and part Papuan ; a fine people, 
hardly inferior to the Tongans and Samoans and much 
superior to the Papuans. 

The mission history of the Fijis is a picture of the 
brightest light shining in the deepest darkness. To ap- 
preciate it we need to observe how deep was the primitive 
darkness. While all the aborigines of the Pacific were 
barbarous the Fijis were superlatively bad. "The very 
name Fiji has become a synonym for whatever is bar- 
barous, inhuman and cannibalistic. " A full description 
of the former condition of the Fijis cannot and ought 
not to be given. The missionaries who labored among 
them have remarked that they saw scenes "too horri- 
ble to be described, too full of fiendish cruelty to be 
imagined ; that the Fiji, going beyond the ordinary lim- 
its of rapine and bloodshed, and violating the elementa- 
ry instincts of mankind, stood unrivalled as a disgrace 
to mankind." 

Looking at the fascinating beauty of these islands 
with their plumed and garlanded vegetation, it is hard to 
realize that in them was about the worst barbarism known 
in the world ; nor is it easier to realize that human 
nature, with its capacity for angelic loveliness and divine 
fellowship, could have sunk so low. It would seem that 
with the darker shade of complexion acquired in min- 
gling with Papuan stock this race had also obtained a 
darker character. Here infanticide was more common 
and more heartless than in the islands further east. The 
early missionaries have testified that not less than two- 



THE FIJI ISLANDS. 297 

thirds of the children were put to death. Especially 
were female children killed. "Why should the girl 
live ? " they would say. ' ' She cannot poise the spear, 
she cannot wield the club." A mother would often 
strangle her own child, with one hand holding the 
nostrils and the other holding the mouth, and then 
herself dig the grave and bury the child. 

Here, too, with as pitiless brutality, the infirm, the 
sick and the aged were put to death. A few illustra- 
tions will be sufficient to show the barbarity of these 
and other practices of this people. Chief Ratu Varani 
once had a grave dug for a girl who had long been 
somewhat unwell. Hearing the exclamations of the 
workmen the girl went out of the house to see what 
was going on, when she was seized and thrown into 
the grave, and in spite of her cries, ' ' Do not bury me ; 
I am quite well now," trodden down and buried alive. 
Strange to say this cruelty was practiced even on the 
chiefs themselves. The missionary, Rev. Thomas Wil- 
liams, hearing that king Tuithaku, of Taviuni, had died, 
hastened to his house to prevent the cruelties usually 
practiced on such occasions, and was surprised to find 
him alive. "My father is dead," said the king's son. 
"His soul has gone out of him, and he moves only 
unconsciously." The king was then taken, stripped 
of his robes and buried alive. So generally were the 
sick put to death that few people died natural deaths 
and few attained to old age. 

Unnecessary cruelties were also practiced in the ordi- 
nary affairs of life. When a chief's house was to be 



.298 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

built men were placed in the postholes, clasping the 
posts, and there buried. At the launching of a canoe 
men were used as rollers, and over them the canoe was 
dragged, and afterwards their bodies were eaten. 

Another revolting custom was the strangling of 
widows after the death of their husbands. This was a 
matter of pride to their relatives, and was sought by the 
widows themselves, because of the insults, the neglect 
and the cruelty to which they would be subjected if they 
survived their husbands. It was the privilege of the 
oldest son to take the lead in strangling his mother at 
the death of his father. When chief Rambethi was lost 
at sea seventeen of his wives were killed. When, in 
1839, the army of Viva was defeated eighty women were 
strangled. 

But the worst horror of ancient Fiji was cannibalism. 
In almost all ages and countries this inhuman practice 
has been known. Historians relate that in ancient 
Scythia, in India, and even among our ancestors in 
Britain, anthropophagi were to be found. Columbus 
found them among the Caribees ; and from the name 
Caribee the term cannibal was derived. Henry M. 
Stanley and other travellers tell how the tribes dwelling 
along the Congo seek human flesh, because of scarcity 
of food, and delight in obtaining "long hogs," human 
victims, just as hunters delight to secure deer, antelope 
and other animals for food. On many islands of the 
Pacific, as in Hawaii, cannibalism was almost unknown ; 
in some of the Pacific Islands it was practiced only in 
times of famine and in war ; but in the Fiji Islands it 



THE FIJI ISLANDS. 299 

prevailed to an extent and with horrors unsurpassed 
elsewhere in the world. The Fijis ate human flesh 
chiefly from the love of it. They ate it also in the fury 
of hatred, to show vengeance and to excite terror in their 
enemies, and were confirmed in the practice by their 
religion, supposing that the gods to whom they offered 
victims in sacrifices devoured the spirits of the victims, 
while they themselves ate the bodies. They declared 
that human flesh was more palatable than pork ; though 
the flesh of foreigners was often found to be too strong- 
ly flavored with salt and tobacco to be agreeable. The 
shipwrecked, and those slain in war, or executed for any 
cause by order of the chiefs, were invariably eaten. On 
the occasions of high hospitalities to visiting chiefs, and 
in almost all festivities, human flesh was considered 
essential for banquets. The missionaries tell how the 
king Tanoa, of Mbau, was accustomed to return from 
tributary islands with bodies of infants hanging from 
the yard-arms of his canoe, as tribute exacted for food 
from their parents. They tell a ghoulish story, how 
once at Na Ruwai a man by the name of Loti had his 
wife help him plant taro, fetch wood for an oven and a 
bamboo knife, which she cheerfully did, and then killed, 
cooked and ate her. Twenty-eight persons were once 
seized while fishing, and merely stunned, and then 
thrown into an oven ; some of them recovered and 
endeavored to escape, but were driven back upon the 
red hot stones. A chief, Ra Undreundre, registered the 
number of the bodies he ate by stones set up on end. 
The Rev. Mr. Lythe counted 872 of these stones. 



300 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

There was no excuse for cannibalism. The land 
could have been made to sustain more than twice its 
population. Heathenism had simply made the Fijis 
fiends. 

The evangelization of the Fijis resulted partly, in a 
striking way, from that of Tahiti. Like the ripples in a 
still pool, that run to its furthest shores, the influences of 
the gospel triumphs in Tahiti extended even to this 
group, and caused remarkable results in the little island 
of Ono, which is situated 150 miles south of Lakemba. 
A frightful epidemic prevailed in this island in the year 
1835, and the natives in vain made extraordinary offer- 
ings to their gods to obtain relief. At that time an Ono 
chief visited Lakemba, and learned from a Fiji chief, 
who had visited Tahiti, that the only true God was Jeho- 
vah, and that one day in seven should be observed in his 
worship. Returning home with this little spark of truth 
he persuaded his countrymen, who were now despairing 
of aid from their idol-worship, to undertake the worship 
of Jehovah. But they soon found that they needed in- 
struction about the mode of this worship, and therefore 
sent two of their people to the Tonga Islands to obtain 
teachers. A Christian Tongan, who was visiting in a 
neighboring island, Vatoa, hearing of their desire, now 
went to them and endeavored to instruct them ; they 
gladly welcomed him, built a chapel for Christian wor- 
ship, and daily attended his preaching. Afterwards the 
teachers who had been sent for from the Tonga Islands 
arrived, one of them a native of Ono who had wandered 
from home and had been converted at the Tonga Isl- 



THE FIJI ISLANDS. 30 J 

ands. The Ono people received them with great de- 
light, eagerly listened to their instructions, and at length 
became very anxious to obtain the ministrations of the 
English missionaries themselves. For this purpose they 
sent messengers in a canoe to Lakemba, where missiona- 
ries had now arrived. These messengers, while out alone 
on the great deep, came in an accidental way to make a 
trial of their superstitions, and to renounce them. A 
tropic bird lighted on their canoe, and several of them 
did obeisance to it ; when one of them seized it, saying 
that if it was a god it could get away and if not he 
would kill and eat it, and proceeded to do so, to the 
horror of his companions. When they saw that no ill 
consequences followed this act they concluded that their 
paganism was utter folly. In response to their request 
Rev. John Calvert now went to Ono and commenced 
mission labor there. Not long afterwards he baptized 
200 persons. The heathen on this island then made 
war upon the Christians, but were defeated, and finally 
were won over to Christianity by the clemency of the 
Christians. The good work here so prospered that in a 
few years the whole population united with the churches, 
many went forth as teachers to other islands, and no- 
where in the Fiji group did the gospel win as quick and 
full success. 

While these events were occurring at Ono the Wes- 
leyan missionaries in the Tonga Islands were commen- 
cing a mission at Lakemba. Observing that many Ton- 
gans visited the Fiji Islands for trade, and to procure 
timber for canoes, they sent two of their number, Revs. 



302 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Wm. Cross and David Cargill, to Lakemba in 1835. 
They reached this island by schooner in four days, and 
were welcomed by a large number of Tongans, with 
whom they were able to converse in their own language, 
and by their influence gained favor with the Fijian king. 
Their first night on shore was made so uncomfortable by 
mosquitos and by hogs, that entered their place of lodg- 
ing, that they returned to their vessel ; but soon houses 
were built for them and a place of worship, in which 
from the outset they addressed audiences of 1 50 people. 
They suffered many hardships, were sometimes at great 
peril amid the fierce wars of the natives, and were much 
opposed by the heathen king; but were able in five 
months to baptize thirty-one of the resident Tongans, 
and in one year to form a church of 280 members. 
Two seamen from the wrecked ship Active took up their 
abode with them and rendered them much service, but 
finally, against their warnings, went to sea in a boat, and 
were pursued by natives of another island, and killed 
and eaten. The good work of these missionaries ex- 
tended to the numerous small islands in the vicinity, and 
in these, after many struggles, churches were formed, 
and the mission enterprise ever afterwards prospered. 

Thus far the missionaries in the Fiji Islands had seen 
little more hardship than they had experienced in the 
Tonga Islands ; and their labors had been as abundantly 
blessed. They were therefore encouraged to extend 
their enterprise to the Inner Islands,' from which invita- 
tions were now coming to them. With this view, in 1839, 
Revs. John Hunt and Lythe went to Somosomo, on the 




Fijians Making Fire. 



THE FIJI ISLANDS. 303 

island of Taviuni, the "Garden of Fiji." They landed 
to witness almost immediately the strangling of sixteen 
wives of the king's son, who had been drowned at sea, 
and to see a cannibal feast on eleven bodies of men 
killed in war. These were cooked and eaten so close to 
their house that they had to close their blinds to shut 
out the revolting sight. For this slight on his feast the 
king sought to kill one of them, and with difficulty was 
dissuaded from doing so. They afterwards saw the same 
king buried alive while he was very ill. 

So frightful did it now become for them to remain at 
Somosomo, that in September, 1847, tne y all secretly 
and suddenly embarked on a schooner, and went to 
Mbau ; but this island was at that time in such a whirl- 
wind of war with other islands that they soon removed 
to Rewa, a few miles south, on the island of Vanua-Levu. 
Here, however, they lived in perils and scenes of horror 
similar to those they had fled from in Taviuni. 

One incident of their terrible experiences should be 
related to show the heroism of their wives. In 1849 a 
marauding tribe, called Mbutoni, came to Mbau bearing 
tribute to King Tanoa ; and he, desiring to show them 
extraordinary hospitality, ordered a cannibal feast to be 
prepared for them. The purveyor for this feast, Ngav- 
indi, entrapped and killed two youth ; but their bodies 
were not considered enough for the feast, and he there- 
fore hid with his warriors in canoes covered with green 
leaves under mangrove trees by the shore and surprised a 
party of women, and seized fourteen of them. Tidings 
of this event were borne to the island of Viva, a few miles 



304 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

north, where two missionary ladies, Mrs. Calvert and Mrs. 
Lythe, were alone with their children, their husbands 
being away at a conference of missionaries on another 
island. These ladies felt that they must do what they 
could to save these women, and for this purpose set out 
with a friendly chief in a canoe for Mbau. As they drew 
near to Mbau they heard the din of the death-drums and 
the shrieks of the women who were being murdered, and 
hurried the paddling of their boatmen, and at length 
leaped ashore and pressed through the throngs of savages 
to the house of the king. Although there was the pen- 
alty of death for any woman who should go unbidden 
into the presence of the king they went directly to him, 
and with whales' teeth as presents in their hands de- 
manded the release of the women. Strange to say, he 
granted their request ; five women who were not yet 
killed were rescued, and the missionary ladies returned 
safely to their homes. Amid such scenes as these the 
missionaries labored on, sometimes suffering greatly in 
the terrible hurricanes that occasionally swept over this 
part of the Pacific, sometimes in peril amid the wars of 
the natives, and often utterly horrified by the brutal vices 
and fiendish cruelty of the people. 

The spirit of the gospel that would rescue the most 
degraded and evil of mankind was illustrated in their 
labors among these monsters of lust and cruelty, and the 
power of the gospel to uplift and ennoble the most 
hopeless of men in the success that followed their labors. 
Gradually they gathered children into their schools and 
congregations into their chapels, and one by one the 



THE FIJI ISLANDS. 305 

haughtiest and fiercest of the savages bowed before their 
proclamation of divine love. Finally a wonderful re- 
vival of religion occurred. The natives were utterly 
overcome with fear and contrition for their sins. ' ' They 
prayed in agony. They literally roared for hours to- 
gether. Sometimes they fainted from exhaustion, and 
they had no comfort till they found peace in believing 
in Christ." Hundreds were afterwards received into 
the churches, and among them some of the most savage 
chiefs. 

After this revival the progress of the missionary work 
was very rapid. Heathenism was soon universally re- 
nounced, the awful horrors of cannibalism ceased ; 
churches were everywhere organized and the forms of 
Christian civilization adopted. On the Island of Mbau 
a great stone, on which it had been the custom to 
slaughter victims for cannibal feasts, on which Mr. Lythe 
once saw fourteen persons killed, was conveyed by the 
natives to a church, hollowed out, and made a baptis- 
mal font; "2. fit emblem," it was remarked, "of the 
people who had been transformed from pagan barbarism 
into Christian character." 

During the year 1874 a terrible mortality was caused 
by measles in the Fiji Islands. King Thakombau and his 
three sons visited Sydney and returned home ill with this 
disease. A multitude of chiefs and friends gathered from 
all the islands to welcome them, and returning to their 
homes spread the contagion. When taken sick the 
natives rushed into the streams of water to cool their 
fever, and when recovering ate improper food. The 



306 T HE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

result was that 40,000 people, one-third of the popula- 
tion, died. 

The present population of the Fiji archipelago is 
about 128,400. At the time of its discovery it was 
estimated at 200,000. The diminution is chiefly at- 
tributable to the mortality caused by foreign diseases. 
Of the present population, 111,743 are Fijis, 3,567 
Europeans, 796 half-castes and 4, 230 Rotumans. 

The Fiji Islands were formally annexed to Great 
Britain in the year 1874. The king, Thakombau, had 
for many years been harassed by the contentions of 
his chiefs, the opposition of the foreign settlers and 
the demands of foreign countries for redress of wrongs, 
and therefore finally ceded his islands unconditionally to 
Great Britain. On this occasion he said to Governor 
Sir Hercules Robinson, the English commissioner, ' ' If 
matters remain as they are, Fiji will become like a piece 
of driftwood and be picked up by the first passer-by. 
I am assured that, if we do not cede Fiji, the white 
stalkers on the beach, the cormorants, will open their 
maws and swallow us. By annexation the two races, 
the white and the black, will be bound together under 
laws, and the stronger nation will lend stability to the 
weaker. " In the ceremony of cession Thakombau handed 
his war-club to the commissioner, saying, as interpreted, 
"The king gives her Majesty, Queen Victoria, his old 
and favorite war-club — the former, and until lately the 
only known, law of Fiji. In abandoning club-law and 
adopting the forms and principles of civilized societies 
be lays by his old weapon and covers it with the em- 



bit iran" tfii ' ' i " ' •• s'\* *- i 4*^: 




;/^*j» ) affl%jaw2jJK/ 


^WnlBife^^, v 


J^^Mmf^/^ 


^^^si ii% 


Mmm 


IftlSP 




• Y i**V« J«'V£»> ' 







THE FIJI ISLANDS. 3°7 

blems of peace. The barbaric law and age are of the 
past ; and his people now submit themselves, under her 
Majesty's rule, to civilization. " 

The result of the mission work in Fiji is that, where 
sixty-five years ago there was not a single Christian, 
to-day there is not an avowed heathen. For many years 
cannibalism has been wholly extinct. Miss Gordon- 
Cumming has remarked in her book, "At Home in 
Fiji," that "it is difficult now to imagine that this peo- 
ple, with their mellifluous speech and almost Parisian 
manners, were the cannibals of ancient times." The 
number of their churches is now 900, the number of 
their church-members 27,000, the attendants at religious 
meetings 100,000 and the pupils of Sunday-schools 40- 
000. In almost every house family worship is observed, 
and with great enthusiasm and benevolence the people 
are conducting mission enterprises for the pagan islands 
further west. 

In all history no human enterprises have caused 
such a change in the character, conduct and condition 
of a degraded people as this that has been accomplished 
in Fiji, nor is there any more remarkable transforma- 
tion reported in the annals of missions. The uplifting 
by the sun of the briny waters that surge around these 
islands, to float in the sky and gleam in hues of light, 
is not more wonderful than this transformation by divine 
grace of the foul and fiendish heathen into humble, 
loving and lovable Christians, into sons of God and 
joint-heirs with Christ. 



308 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



CHAPTER XV. 

MELANESIA. 

The missionary enterprise has been progressive. 
Each island in turn, as it has received light, has beauti- 
fully become a radiating centre to send light into the 
surrounding pagan night, and thus almost every group 
of the South Pacific has sent evangelists to the little clus- 
ters of the New Hebrides, the Loyalty and the Solomon 
Islands, and to New Caledonia and Sumatra. 

A description of these islands would be like a repeti- 
tion of the sketches that have been given of mountains 
of verdure rising from the blue ocean, with waving 
plumes of palm and plantain and picturesque forms of 
ridges, valleys and cliffs ; ' ' summer isles of Eden lying 
in dark purple spheres of sea." 

But a brief account should be given of a few of the 
New Hebrides, which are of special interest in mission 
history. Erromanga, where Williams and several other 
missionaries were martyred, is an island measuring thirty 
by twenty-two miles, with mountains 3,000 feet high. 
Tanna, where the most thrilling adventures of missiona- 
ries occurred, is "the most lovely and fertile island of 
this group," measuring twenty by eighteen miles, "rising 
abruptly from the ocean, with green table-topped moun- 
tains piled gracefully together." On this island is the 
volcano Yoswa, that gives out a great light and throws 



NEW HEBRIDES & ADJOFNING ISLANDS. 




SOLQMOIN 

ISLANDS \ 






ifcfuitCO 



\ 



+ 



JSO* 



TO 



_£m2L&. 



Guadale* 






w 



y 



to 
..^SZtmJkoro <5* 



/ Torres If % 9 



* v Tucopi a, 



s o 



V T K 



TamuiLam^^ fgrU) '-- 




jiuroro/ 
[JPertterosbZ 



Ih^pi (Shako) 



\ Stopfer** 9 , 

NflEBBIDES 



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o so too aoo 



MELANESIA. 309 

up large stones at regular intervals of five or six minutes. 
Aniwa, where there has been extraordinary missionary suc- 
cess, is a "dainty gem " of coral formation, ten miles in 
circumference and of about fifty feet elevation above the 
ocean. Aneityum, where there have been equally great 
missionary triumphs, is the most southerly island of this 
group. It has mountains 2,788 feet high, and is partly 
barren, with a bare red soil, and partly clothed with a 
dense foliage of beautifully contrasting shades of green. 

The inhabitants of the New Hebrides are mixed races, 
as is indicated by the fact that they speak some twenty 
different languages — in some cases on the same island 
two or three languages as different from each other as 
French and German. But all these languages have the 
same grammatical construction. The natives are chiefly 
of Papuan stock with some traces of Polynesian lineage. 
They are smaller, darker and weaker than the Polyne- 
sians, but lighter than the true Papuans ; their hair frizzly, 
foreheads receding, and noses flat. 

It would almost seem to have been in grim irony 
that, in 1606, Quiros, on discovering the most northern 
island of this group, gave it sacred names — calling it 
Espiritu Santo, its harbor Vera Cruz, its river Jordan, 
and its chief town New Jerusalem — for the character of 
the natives was not in keeping with such names. To 
those who have always lived in the comforts and refine- 
ments of civilization hardly anything could be more re- 
volting than the appearance and conduct of these natives. 
They are described as ' ' roving about in a state of perfect 
nudity, the women wearing only a petticoat a few inches 



310 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

wide of matting wrought in diamond patterns of red, 
white and black colors, and all, men and women, smeared 
over their faces with a red pigment of ochreous earth or 
turmeric, or blackened with charcoal ; sometimes, with a 
horrid humor, painted with different colors on opposite 
sides of their faces ; the cartilage of the nose in many in- 
stances pierced and the orifice filled with a circular piece 
of stone, and the lobe of each ear hung with ornaments 
of sea- or tortoise-shell. Ingeniously wrought bracelets 
or small rings of ground cocoanut shells were worn 
around their arms and ankles, garters of green leaves 
were tied around the leg under the knee, and their long 
crisp hair was gathered into a large topknot colored yel- 
low and surmounted with a plume of cocks' feathers." 
On Aneityum the men dressed their hair in small tresses, 
each bound round very neatly, with thin, well-prepared 
fibres of a slender plant, to within one inch of the ends. 
"They lived in wretched huts, built of branches 
of trees stuck into the ground, fastened to each other 
at the top and covered with leaves. For the most part 
these huts were not more than four feet high, six feet 
wide, and varying in length according to the number of 
people in a family — if indeed such an assembly of de- 
graded beings may be called a family — a man having 
three to seven wives, and these his slaves ; the children 
of whom huddled together in these wretched hovels 
without any sense of shame, having in most cases only 
dried grass to cover them and in some instances burying 
their bodies in the earth for warmth or protection from 
the mosquitos." 



MELANESIA. 31 1 

Rev. Joseph Annand, who spent three years on Fate, 
thus speaks of his experiences there in 1874 with a bro- 
ther missionary, Mr. Mackenzie : ' ' We met one man 
who had thirty-five wives and had eaten sixty-seven 
human beings. We slept in a low grass house, about 
forty feet long and eight feet high, with a door two and 
a half feet high. Just outside of the door was a gutter 
of filth, ankle deep. We had cocoanut mats to sleep on. 
The oven was open near us, and in consequence we 
could not eat some of the food cooked there. We 
had a shelf on the wall two and a half feet high by 
as many wide, for two of us to sleep on, and thin mats to 
cover us. The mosquitos and fleas cannot be imagined. 
Each leg of our bedstead-shelf had a pig tied to it, which 
tugged so that we feared a great fall. An old woman 
who slept on the stove belabored the pigs in the night to 
keep them quiet. In the morning we were awakened by 
the crowing of a cock which was right beside us. The 
census of the dwelling for the night was, ' Thirteen pigs, 
seven people, rats, and fowls.' Four or five months later 
the enemies of our entertainers came down upon them 
and cooked and ate every person in the family." 

Like the savage races further east, the New Hebridese 
were addicted to infanticide, widow-strangling, cannibal- 
ism and idol-worship, and, like them, were made only 
worse by contact with foreigners ; for traders and ' ' black- 
birders " repeatedly pillaged their property, burned their 
villages and massacred or sold into slavery many of their 
people. They were also maddened by the belief that 
diseases were introduced by the white men, and in this 



312 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

belief were partly correct ; for, as has been mentioned, 
the measles were purposely introduced into Tanna and 
other diseases were caused by the vices and intemperance 
of the foreigners. The result has been that the natives 
of these islands have taken every possible opportunity to 
kill the white men and destroy their ships, and have sur- 
passed all the races of the Pacific in treachery, cruelty 
and malignity towards foreigners. For this reason these 
islands have well been named "The Dangerous Islands," 
and described as ' * hells on earth. " 

To accomplish the high aims of missions towards 
such a people would seem to have been impossible. One 
might almost as well hope to transform the denizens of 
the ocean around their shores — the reptile-like eels, the 
wallowing whales, the slimy octopi and the man-eating 
sharks — into gentle creatures of the land and upper air, 
into flying fowl or birds-of-paradise, as to change so 
demon-like a race into a pure, godly and loving people. 
But beneath their savage exterior and in their wild feroc- 
ity were germs of a nature made in the image of God, 
susceptible of the holiest culture and capable of the high- 
est growth, and when there came to them, in their dark- 
ness, woe and degradation, evangels of the sublimest 
truths, and with these truths the blessed influences of the 
Divine Spirit, they were gradually subdued, and changed 
to humility, purity and nobleness of character. 

But the process of transformation was slow. At first 
there was for the missionaries a period of perils and mar- 
tyrdoms. When the light first shone "the darkness 
comprehended it not." These islands have been well 




A New Hebrides Warrior. 



MELANESIA. 313 

called "The Martyr Islands," so many pioneers of the 
missionary enterprise have fallen here. The natives were 
moved to destroy these devoted heroes by the supersti- 
tion that they caused malarial diseases by supernatural 
influences. The history of these islands is almost repe- 
titious by its ever-recurring accounts of this wrath of 
the natives, which broke forth at the returns of the un- 
healthy seasons as regularly as the eruptions of their Tan- 
nese volcano. It is not to be wondered at that, with 
this delusion, they sought to murder the missionaries ; 
for with equally absurd delusions civilized people have 
persecuted and put to death persons whom they suspect- 
ed of witchcraft, and have often mobbed and lynched 
monstrous villains. The natives were also moved by 
their very idea of justice to destroy the missionaries in 
retaliation for robberies, murders and kidnappings com- 
mitted by white men, just as Americans inflict fierce 
vengeance on the Indians who burn their homes and kill 
their wives and children. 

The history of the New Hebrides mission begins with 
accounts of such conduct of natives towards the mission- 
aries at the island of 

ERROMANGA. 

Capt. Cook, the discoverer of this island, gave its in- 
habitants sad first impressions of the character of white 
men. While here on shore he became alarmed because 
some natives laid hands on his boat, and therefore 
caused his seamen to fire two volleys of shot into their 
midst, and killed four of them and wounded many 



314 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

more. Afterwards he fired from his vessel four-pound 
shot among their houses. In subsequent times traders 
who came to obtain sandal-wood, which brought great 
prices in China, committed many similar outrages. At 
this island a trader killed a son of the chief Raniani 
just before the great missionary apostle John Williams 
and a young missionary by the name of James Harris 
arrived to introduce Samoan teachers. Unfortunately 
these missionaries landed here as among infuriated 
wolves. As they were going inland they saw too late 
their danger and turned to flee. Harris was quickly 
knocked down and clubbed. Williams reached the sea, 
but stumbled over the slippery stones of the beach and 
was pierced with arrows by the very chief whose son had 
been killed by the trader, and their bodies were eaten by 
the savages. During the following year some of their 
bones, as it was supposed, were recovered and interred 
at Upolu, Samoa ; but it is probable that the natives de- 
livered up bones of their own people, supposing that 
merely human bones were asked for. 

To renew the mission enterprise on this island, and 
afterwards to continue it here and on the other islands, 
after terrible martyrdoms, could not have been suggested 
by "motives of avarice or of worldly ambition." To 
leave homes of safety, comfort and refinement and go 
into fellowship with these unclean and sensual savages, 
and into the fire of their demoniac rage, could have been 
prompted only by a pure benevolence kindled by divine 
love. It is delightful to note that even the degraded 
Polynesian races themselves entered upon this crusade 



MELANESIA. 315 

against heathenism and went to the front in its trials and 
martyrdoms. It was native Samoans, just lifted out of 
the depths of pagan degradation, who were often the 
pioneer missionaries in these islands, again and again 
took up the blood-stained banner of the cross, and toiled 
and suffered and died in this holy warfare. 

These Samoans now volunteered to renew the attempt 
to carry the gospel to Erromanga, and in 1840, under 
the conduct of Rev. T. Heath, two of them were taken 
thither to labor as evangelists. They were badly treated 
and for several months suffered for lack of food, obtain- 
ing barely enough to sustain life by the kindness of a 
friendly native who supplied them by stealth. When 
the missionary vessel arrived during the following year 
they fled with difficulty to it and returned to Samoa. 

In 1852 two natives of Rarotonga and a native of 
this island of Erromanga, who had been educated at a 
mission school at Samoa, went thither, and were wel- 
comed by the people. The result of their labors was 
that in process of time one hundred natives renounced 
idolatry, two chapels were built, and the very chief who 
murdered Williams embraced Christianity and delivered 
up to the teachers the club with which the murder had 
been committed. 

In 1857 Rev. George N. Gordon, a young man from 
the Presbyterian College at Halifax, Nova Scotia, vol- 
unteered to aid in the perilous work on this island, and 
proceeded thither with his wife. Soon after their arrival 
a terrific hurricane occurred, and after this the measles 
were introduced by a trading ship and caused many 



316 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

deaths. As usual the natives attributed all such calami- 
ties to their gods, and now, supposing that the presence 
of the missionaries was the cause of their anger, became 
infuriated against them. While Mr. Gordon, in order 
to get away from the malaria of the low swamps, 
was building a house at a place elevated 1,000 feet 
above Dillon's Bay, some natives waylaid and killed 
him, and then meeting his wife, who ran to inquire 
about the disturbance, killed her also. 

A younger brother of Mr. Gordon, Rev. James D. 
Gordon, now offered to take up the standard of missions 
on this island, and heroically went thither in 1864. He 
labored efficiently eight years, but finally was tomahawked 
by a savage who supposed that he had caused the death 
of his child by supernatural influence. About two years 
before the Rev. James McNair, who had come to assist 
Mr. Gordon, had died of malarial disease. And now 
another missionary, Rev. Hugh A. Robinson, hastened 
to continue the work on this island, and in a few years 
was able to organize a church of 190 members and to 
employ thirty-three native teachers in evangelical work. 
In the church built by him at Dillon's Bay a tablet was 
placed with this inscription : 



MELANESIA. Z l 7 

" Sacred to the memory of Christian missionaries 
who died on this island : 

John Williams, 
James Harris, 

Killed at Dillon's Bay by the natives, 30th November, 1839 > 

George N. Gordon, 

Ellen C. Gordon, 

Killed on 20th of May, 1861 ; 

James McNair, 

Who died at Dillon's Bay, 16th July, 1870; and 

James D. Gordon, 

Killed at Portinia Bay, 7th March, 1872. 

They hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord 

Jesus. Acts 15 : 26. 
It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 

1 Tim. 1:15." 
Other islands of this group as well as Erromanga have 
merited the title of "Martyr Islands," among which is 

FATE, OR SANDWICH ISLAND. 

Here, as at Erromanga, the primitive ferocity of the 
people was increased by the horrible atrocities of the 
foreigners. Here, as has been related, the crews of three 
sandal-wood vessels got into a quarrel with the natives, 
killed one hundred of them, and then pursued a com- 
pany of thirty aged men, women and children to a cave, 
and there kindled a fire and suffocated them, and then 
cut down the fruit-bearing trees and pillaged the houses 



318 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

of the villages. In retaliation a chief afterwards killed 
twenty-two seamen of a wrecked whaleship and distribu- 
ted their bodies to his people to be eaten. For mission- 
aries to land among these natives, while they were thus 
fierce for revenge against foreigners, was like Daniel 
entering the lions' den. 

But providentially the way was opened to make a 
peaceful beginning of the mission work on this island. 
A Samoan chief, by the name of Sualo, while endeavor- 
ing to voyage to the Tongas was driven to this island by 
a storm. He gained the favor of the natives, married 
the daughter of the chief and became a leading man. 
Hearing what had been accomplished by missionaries at 
Samoa he sent a request to Messrs. Murray and Turner, 
as they were passing in the missionary packet John Wil- 
liams, that they would send teachers to this island, and 
four Samoan teachers were committed to his protection. 
He aided them in their Christian work, and finally with 
a number of the natives renounced heathenism. The 
idolaters on the island made opposition and, with their 
ever-recurring suspicion that the teachers were bringing 
the wrath of their gods upon them, murdered several of 
them. 

In subsequent times the mission work on this island 
was carried to signal success, and such a change effected 
in the character of the people that when a vessel with 
one hundred and twenty people on board was wrecked 
here, instead of killing and devouring them, as they 
would have done in former times, they rescued them all, 
took them, thirty to one village, thirty to another, and so 



MELANESIA. 319 

on around the island, and sheltered and fed them all 
until a vessel arrived on which they were provided with 
safe passage to Fiji. 

No island of this group has a more thrilling history 
than 

TANNA, 

which has been called "The Light-house of the South 
Pacific. " Here were a people like their own climate ; 
sometimes mild and pleasing, like their days of calm and 
sunshine, and sometimes wild and furious, like the 
cyclones that occasionally stormed over their island and 
prostrated their forests and destroyed their houses. 

On this island were a greater number of different 
tribes, speaking different languages, than on any other 
of the group. Any native going beyond the boundaries 
of his own tribe was in peril of his life. Once two 
young men stole their way to an eminence to see a ship 
lying at anchor and were discovered by the neighboring 
tribe, murdered and eaten. These tribes were constant- 
ly at war. When once informed by a chief returning 
from Aneityum that there was no war on that island they 
incredulously exclaimed, "When was such a thing heard 
of as a country without war !" 

Into this babel of languages and whirlpool of strife 
missionaries at length ventured with their messages of 
divine peace and blessing. Rev. John Williams came 
here on the day before his death, and was much pleased 
with the apparent friendliness and peaceful disposition of 
the people, and set on shore three excellent Samoans, 
who were most cordially welcomed. So eager were the 



320 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

natives that these teachers should take up their abode 
among them that they would not allow them to return 
to the vessel for their baggage, except as three of the 
crew remained as hostages till they again landed. But 
soon after the vessel departed the teachers found them- 
selves in peril because of the intertribal wars and the 
disposition of the natives to attribute the diseases caused 
by malaria to supernatural influence exercised by them. 
Two of these teachers died of these epidemics and the 
others fled from the island. 

So important however seemed this beautiful island, 
the most fertile and attractive of the group, having a 
population of 12,000, that the Samoan Assembly of 
missionaries in 1842 sent thither Rev. Messrs. Turner 
and Nesbit, with their wives. The story of their expe- 
riences and that of the missionaries who succeeded them, 
although distressingly full of painful incidents, may well 
be considered in detail, as it pictures the light shining in 
darkness, and illustrates how the Lord was with his ser- 
vants, to interpose by special providences in their behalf 
and to bless their labors. 

Messrs. Turner and Nesbit at first were most kindly 
received by the natives. But as soon as they were able 
to use the language, and had given some little instruc- 
tion, a body of cannibal sorcerers living near the volcano 
became jealous of them, because of their increasing 
influence with the people, and made several futile at- 
tempts to destroy them. Finally an epidemic broke out, 
and these priests persuaded the natives that the mission- 
aries were the cause of it j whereupon the heathen tribes, 



m 




MELANESIA. 321 

infuriated as against the worst of enemies, surrounded 
the village in which they resided. The natives of the 
village now entreated the missionaries to aid them in the 
battle that was about to occur, and when this was re- 
fused asked them to lend them a gun, which also they 
would not do. The only resource of the missionaries 
now was prayer. But just as the heathen were about to 
attack them a terrific thunderstorm burst upon the isl- 
and, and the natives fled in every direction for shelter 
from the torrents of rain. During the following day, 
however, they again gathered, to the number of 2,000, 
around the village, and at night approached, setting fire 
to the houses of those friendly to the missionaries. 
Finally, as the only way of escape, the missionaries 
secretly fled with their Samoan assistants to a canoe at 
the beach, and put to sea. But the violent wind and 
the high sea compelled them to return, and at length, 
utterly exhausted and despairing of deliverance, they 
went back to their home. At daybreak hundreds of the 
heathen again surrounded their premises, uttering their 
horrid war-cries, and for two hours they were in contin- 
ual suspense, expecting every moment to be massacred, 
when suddenly the cry, "Sail ho !" was raised. A ship, 
the Highlander, Capt. Lucas, was entering the harbor. 
The captain of this ship had heard of their going to this 
island, and in passing by had been moved by interest for 
them to enter the harbor and inquire about their condi- 
tion. He now provided them with armed protectors, 
took them aboard his vessel and conveyed them to 
Samoa. 



322 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Two years after this the missionary vessel was em- 
ployed to take back the Samoan and Rarotongan teach- 
ers to this island ; and they were joyfully welcomed by 
the natives. The war of persecution had ended ; many 
natives had died of pestilence, and inferring that the 
judgment of heaven had been visited upon them for their 
ill treatment of God's servants they were anxious to show 
favor to these teachers. But at the return of the un- 
healthy season of the year fever, ague and dysentery again 
prevailed ; several of the teachers died, and the rest were 
obliged by the natives to flee from the island for their 
lives. 

But many of the Tannese had become warmly at- 
tached to these teachers, and during the following year 
they fitted up canoes and went to Aneityum and persua- 
ded them to return to Tanna. Again, however, the 
fevers broke out, and the smallpox, which was recklessly 
introduced by a trading vessel, made terrible havoc. 
To attempt to assuage the fears and rage that now mad- 
dened the natives was like attempting to curb their vol- 
cano, to repress its vapors and discharges of rocks and 
fire. The teachers, therefore, were again obliged to flee 
from the island. 

The Presbyterian churches of Scotland, Canada, Aus- 
tralia and New Zealand now united in assuming the 
care of this mission. "The missionaries sent by these 
churches were organized into one synod, called the New 
Hebrides Mission Synod, which should meet annually 
and determine upon their own operations, each mission- 
ary being responsible to his own church. " 



MELANESIA. 323 

Under this arrangement Rev. Messrs. John G. Paton, 
Joseph Copeland, and J. W. Matheson, with their wives, 
in 1858 set out for Tanna. They went first to Aneityum, 
and leaving their families in the care of the missionaries 
Geddie and Inglis proceeded to Tanna to build houses. 
Mr. Paton remarks, in his intensely interesting aubiogra- 
phy, that their first sight of the natives ' ' drove them to 
the verge of dismay, as they beheld them in their paint, 
nakedness and misery." 

They built houses for Messrs. Paton and Matheson 
at Port Resolution and for Mr. Copeland at Juakaraka, 
on the opposite side of the island. With axes, knives, 
fish-hooks and blankets they purchased sites for build- 
ings, coral for lime, timber for the framework of the 
houses and sugar-cane leaves for thatch. 

While they were laying the foundations of these 
houses intertribal wars raged around them, and bodies 
of the slain were cooked and feasted upon before their 
eyes. So horrible was the appetite of the natives for hu- 
man flesh that, as Mr. Paton relates, they sometimes 
even disinterred the bodies of men recently buried and 
devoured them. The stream from which they obtained 
drinking water was polluted with the blood of those 
slain in battle, and the missionaries were obliged to use 
only the milk of cocoanuts for drink. 

Having partially finished their houses they brought 
their families to this island on November 5, 1858. Un- 
fortunately Mr. Paton had selected a location for his 
house in the low malarial region ; in consequence of 
which during the first year he had fourteen attacks of 



324 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

fever, and in less than five months after his arrival had 
the overwhelming affliction of losing his wife by malarial 
sickness. 

The subsequent history of these missionaries is a 
painful record of sufferings incurred amid hurricanes, 
epidemics, wars, and cannibal practices. More than 
once Mr. Paton came to the point of death by fever. 
Finally he erected another house, on a high ridge in the 
sweep of the trade-winds, and there afterwards enjoyed 
better health. In i860 the Rev. Mr. Johnson, of Nova 
Scotia, who was sent to assist him, died of fever while 
his house was surrounded by savages threatening his 
life. Soon afterwards Mr. Copeland was obliged by ill 
health to leave the island, and Mr. and Mrs. Matheson 
took their place at Juakaraka. Several of the Samoan 
teachers also were murdered, and others died of the 
smallpox and the measles, which were purposely intro- 
duced and which destroyed one third of the people. 
Because of the drouths, pestilences and hurricanes the 
sorcerers living near the volcano repeatedly plotted to 
destroy them, and their escapes were most marvellous. 
Once Mr. Paton, to teach the priests the folly of their 
superstitions, challenged them to kill him by their incan- 
tations, and with this view bit off and ate pieces of bana- 
nas and gave the remainder to them for use in sorcery, 
for, according to their belief, he was by this act com- 
pletely in their power, since they had these fragments of 
food partly eaten by him to conjure with, and they made 
extraordinary prayers many days for his death, but finally 
admitted that his Jehovah was mightier than their gods. 



MELANESIA. 3 2 5 

At length some vile foreigners on this island positively 
informed the natives that the missionaries were the cause 
of their diseases, and offered to supply them with pow- 
der and shot for destroying them. Nothing was now 
talked of but war. By the advice of a friendly chief Mr. 
Paton at last fled from his house just in time to escape 
their attack, and took refuge in the top of a huge chest- 
nut-tree. Afterwards at night he secretly went to the 
beach, and with his assistant Samoan teacher put to sea 
in a canoe ; but a strong head wind and rough sea nearly 
swamped the canoe and drove them back to port. Mr. 
Paton then hired a chief to guide him by a secret path to 
the other side of the island ; and with wonderful escapes 
from savages, who repeatedly met and threatened him, 
reached the residence of Mr. Matheson. Here he and 
Mr. Matheson's family were rescued by the vessel Blue 
Bell, which had been sent by the missionaries at Aneity- 
um to deliver them, and arrived just as the savages were 
about to attack them. In subsequent years the mission 
work was resumed on Tanna by Rev. Mr. Watt and Ra- 
rotongan and Samoan teachers ; schools were established 
and churches organized, but the condition of the peo- 
ple is still deplorable. 

The sublime epic of this struggle against the sav- 
agery and paganism of the New Hebridese continues in 
narratives of the wonderful work that was performed in 

ANEITYUM. 

This island is situated only a few miles from Tanna. 
In 1 84 1 two Samoan teachers were taken thither, and 



326 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

were welcomed by a multitude of the natives with joyful 
shouts and a waving of green boughs. They succeeded 
well in their labors till the occurrence of an epidemic, 
by which one of them, as well as many of the natives, 
died, and on account of which they were driven by the 
natives to the barren parts of the island. In October of 
the following year they left this district and made their 
residence on the opposite side of the island ; and here 
in process of time were able to persuade many of the 
natives to abandon their heathen practices. This aroused 
the jealousy of the priests, and at times their lives were 
in great peril. 

In 1848 Rev. Messrs. John Geddie and Powell, with 
their wives, were sent from Nova Scotia to this island. 
They found that a good work had already been done 
among the people by the Samoan teachers, and subse- 
quently were able every year to report remarkable suc- 
cess ; but they had also to tell of persecution by the 
idolaters. Their church was burned and their own 
house set on fire, and barely saved by Christian natives 
who were keeping watch by night. Four of the con- 
verts were killed and eaten. At another time three men 
and three women of the Christian tribe were killed by 
the heathen. Mr. Geddie unwittingly incurred the 
wrath of the natives by cutting trees from a sacred 
grove, and by erecting a fence in a way, according 
to the natives' superstitions, to shut off the path by 
which demons were accustomed to pass from the moun- 
tains to the sea. But by kind words and friendly con- 
duct he succeeded in conciliating them ; though on 



MELANESIA. 32/ 

several occasions he narrowly escaped death at their 
hands. 

In a few years almost the entire people embraced 
Christianity. They showed the genuineness of their con- 
version by their works. Immorality and heathen prac- 
tices were abandoned ; deeds of benevolence took the 
place of deeds of cruelty; $5,000 were contributed for 
the publication of a translation of the Bible ; and the 
product of their cocoanut trees for six months, amount- 
ing to twenty- six tons of copra, worth $574, was given 
for roofing two churches with corrugated iron. Fifty 
natives went forth as evangelists to other islands. After 
the death of Mr. Geddie a wooden tablet was placed 
back of the pulpit at Anelcauhet with the inscription, 
"When he landed, in 1848, there were no Christians 
here ; and when he left, in 1872, there were no heathen." 

Turning from this island of Aneityum we find an 
equally bright record of work performed in the little 
coral island of 

ANIWA. 

Here in 1840 Samoan teachers landed, and afterwards 
teachers from Aneityum. The latter were attacked by 
the savages ; one of them was murdered, and the other 
fled. In 1866 Rev. J. G. Paton, after his escape from 
Tanna, was located here. Remembering his sufferings 
from malaria at Tanna he chose for the site of his house 
the highest ground of the island, a mound which had 
been used for ages as a place for the burial of bones 
thrown out from cannibal feasts. The natives supposed 
that their gods would destroy any one who should des- 



328 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

ecrate this place. But when they perceived that his 
family continued unharmed, and finally were able with- 
out evil consequences to eat fruit of banana trees culti- 
vated on this ground, they concluded that the God of 
the missionaries was able to resist their gods. 

The history of this island is, like that of the other 
New Hebrides, a story of sufferings, privations and dan- 
gers experienced among the squalid and barbarous 
natives and amid the fearful hurricanes that occasionally 
occurred, and also of wonderful deliverances, and of 
signal successes in the mission work. As on Tanna, the 
savages many times sought to take Mr. Paton's life and 
to burn his buildings, but by the vigilance of friendly 
natives, and by his own sagacity and presence of mind, 
he escaped. His first church, almost as soon as built, 
was torn to pieces by a hurricane ; his house also was 
destroyed, and he with his family escaped only by taking 
refuge in their cellar. 

Mr. Paton gained a great advantage by founding an 
orphan school, from which many teachers and preachers 
went forth who did excellent work in this and other 
islands of the group. Three years after his arrival he 
received to the Lord's Supper twelve natives, the most 
of whom had been murderers and cannibals. Finally 
the whole population embraced Christianity. 

In September, 1892, Mr. Paton went to the United 
States to apply for an international contract forbidding 
the sale of ardent spirits and fire-arms to the natives of 
New Hebrides, and also forbidding the continuance of 
the ' ' Kanaka traffic, " or slave-trade, by which one third 



MELANESIA. 329 

of the natives of those islands have been transported to 
Australia and the Fijis. On his arrival in San Francisco 
the writer had the pleasure of meeting him. He was 
then venerable in appearance, about seventy years of 
age, with a long white beard and hair and a kindly beam- 
ing eye ; in looks and manner a veritable missionary 
apostle. He made a profound impression by mission- 
ary appeals in the United States. Rev. F. A. Noble, 
D. D. , of Chicago, said : ' ' Whoever has seen him has 
been drawn to him in trust and admiration. Whoever 
has heard him, whether in parlor or pulpit or on the 
platform, will never forget him. He is a man of God, 
full of faith and the Holy Ghost, devout, tender, sweet, 
humble, loyal to the truth, and consecrated in every 
pulse and power of his being to the service of Christ. " 

There are now in the New Hebrides 18 ordained 
missionaries and 120 evangelists. The islands, Aneit- 
yum, Aniwa, Erromanga, Fate\ Nguna, Metoso, Maku- 
ru and Emae, are almost entirely Christian. Missionaries 
are located on the other islands, and meeting with suc- 
cess. The Bible has been more or less translated into 
fifteen languages of this group. 

In the Loyalty, Santa Cruz, Solomon, and other isl- 
ands further west, mission work has been conducted by 
the Melanesian Society of the Anglican Church of New 
Zealand. The method of this society has been to gather 
bands of young men from the various islands, educate 
them at Norfolk Island, and finally send them as mis- 
sionaries to their respective homes. Bishop John C. 
Patteson, while engaged in this work, was murdered at 



330 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Nakapu, of the Swallow group, in retaliation for atrocities 
of traders. The report of this society for 1888 shows 
766 baptisms, 145 teachers, and 2,514 scholars. 

The south-eastern portion of New Guinea, under the 
government of Great Britain, was entered by the Lon- 
don Missionary Society in 1872 ; and they report 12 
churches organized, 500 natives baptized, and 2,000 
children received into schools. This promises to be one 
of the most successful and important missions of the 
Pacific ; but it is almost too soon to narrate its history. 

When we consider the degraded condition of the 
people of these islands, the extreme difficulty of com- 
municating with them, through their many languages, the 
indescribable sufferings and numerous deaths of the mis- 
sionaries by hurricanes, malarial fevers and the ferocity 
of the natives, we must regard the missionary enterprise 
among them as one of the most extraordinary displays 
of heroism of modern times, and the uplifting of this 
degraded race as one of the greatest illustrations of the 
far-reaching love and divine power of Christ. 

In 1906 the number of the converts in the Presbyterian 
Churches of this group was 2,000. " They have family 
worship in their homes ; they have built large churches, 
which are filled to overflowing ; and they have organized 
missionary societies to carry the Gospel to other lands. 
The Bible has been translated and printed in over twenty 
of their dialects." The traffic in strong drinks, conducted 
by the French, has been causing great mortality. 

The Rev. John G. Paton died in 1907 at Kew, 
Australia, aged 83 years. 



MELANESIA. 33 1 



CHAPTER XVI. 



MELANESIA CONTINUED. 



The Northern Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, Torres, 
Reef, and Solomon Groups. 

The pioneers of the missionary enterprise in the Pacific 
were Englishmen and Americans who ventured, with their 
wives and a few children, into the fire of the pagan ferocity. 
Subsequently the London missionaries, in advancing to 
new fields, sent forward converted islanders as the pioneers. 
Finally Bishop Augustus Selwyn, of the Episcopalian 
Church of New Zealand, proposed to secure children of 
the natives in the new fields, educate these children in 
schools of a Christian country, and send them as pioneer 
missionaries to their own peoples. He proposed, also, 
that, after these children had overcome the pagan op- 
position, white missionaries should be introduced for 
cooperating with them. " The white corks," he said, 
" were for floating the black net." The white missionaries 
remain unmarried, and to reside, like the natives in bamboo 
were to huts. 

Bishop Selwyn's interest in the mission cause was oc- 



332 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

casioned by a clerical mistake in the Letters Patent of his 
appointment as Bishop of New Zealand. In these Letters 
his diocese was described as extending to the 34th parallel 
of north, instead of south, latitude. He determined to 
accept the diocese as thus described, and to inaugurate 
missionary enterprises on the islands within its bounds. 

With this view, in 1848, he made a voyage of explora- 
tion in H. M. S. Dido as far as to the Loyalty Islands. 
Observing that the Fijis, the Southern Hebrides and 
several other groups were occupied by other religious 
denominations which were doing successful work, he chose 
for his field the groups not thus occupied. These were 
the Northern Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, Torres, Reef, 
and Solomon Groups. 

The Northern Hebrides are Raga, or Pentecost, so 
named because Bougainville, its discoverer, first saw it on 
Pentecost Day, Opa or Leper's Island, so named because 
Bougainville there mistook a skin disease for leprosy, and 
Maewo, or Aurora. They are fifteen to twenty miles wide, 
lofty, well watered, very fertile, and heavily wooded. 
Northwest of this group are, successively, the Banks Group, 
comprising eight similar islands, the Santa Cruz and Torres 
Groups, comprising eleven low, small islands, and the Reef 
Group, consisting of coral islands. In this latter group 
water is found only in a few springs and in hollow rocks, 
and during drouths the only drink of the natives is the 
milk of cocoanuts. 

Beyond the Reef Islands, in the same direction, is the 
Solomon Group, so named by Mendana, its discoverer, 
because he supposed it was the source whence Solomon 



MELANESIA. 333 

procured " gold, ivory, apes, and peacocks." It consists 
of Isabel, 120 miles long and 2,000 feet high, Guadalcanal-, 
90 miles long and 8,000 feet high, five other islands, 50 
to 100 miles long, and a multitude of islets. Its flora and 
fauna are chiefly of Asiatic and Australian origin. In its 
forests are ebony, mahogany, lignumvitse, sandalwood and 
many other valuable trees, and among its fauna are 
crocodiles, snakes and a variety of marsupials. 

In all these groups the natives are Papuans. Many of 
their tribes have a slight strain of Polynesian, and those of 
the Santa Cruz and Reef Islands are more Polynesian 
than Papuan. Their languages comprise many dialects, 
generally twenty to an island. 

Over these islands the trail of the Serpent has extended. 
A wilder, more besotted and fiercer people than their 
inhabitants it would be hard to find. With the exception 
of the natives of the Santa Cruz and Reef Islands, they 
all were formerly cannibals, and those of them in the 
Solomon Group were also head-hunters. 

The head-hunting was conducted for obtaining trophies 
of valor. When a chief constructed a fine house or a 
large canoe, he required a man to be killed, and then he 
ornamented his skull with pearl shell, and placed it con- 
spicuously on his house or canoe. To avoid the head- 
hunters the people of some districts built their houses on 
trees, or on cliffs, or in swamps. 

For prosecuting his missionary enterprise Bishop Selwyn 
purchased a schooner, the Undine, of twenty-one tons. 
On this vessel he voyaged as captain, for he had previously 
studied navigation, but his seamanship was soon severely 



334 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

tested. A violent storm burst on the little craft and almost 
foundered her, but she made a good run. The Bishop 
wrote in his log: " 1,000 miles in 10 days. To Him 
whom the winds and sea obey be praise and glory for ever 
and ever, Amen." 

The work of procuring boys proved to be difficult and 
perilous. By great tact and a kind and courteous manner 
the Bishop secured in his first trip five. In process of 
time he was able to employ the boys, who had been some 
time in his school, to do the soliciting, and then he was 
more successful. Each succeeding year the natives re- 
ceived him with greater cordiality, and more readily sup- 
plied his vessel with stores of taro, yams and fruit. The 
number of boys in the school has been one hundred and 
fifty to two hundred. At first they were taken to a place 
near Auckland, and afterward, as the climate there was too 
cold for them, they were taken to Norfolk Island. There 
the Pitcairn people, who had gone thither by the invitation 
of the British Government, were residing. They were 
under their own Governor, and were Britain's smallest 
Crown Colony. They welcomed the school, and were 
much benefited by its devout and cultured teachers. On 
this island a thousand acres of land were purchased for 
the school, at a cost of ten thousand dollars. In this tract 
a beautiful chapel was built, and around it houses for the 
teachers and pupils. The land was very fertile, and was 
easily made to produce in abundance yams, taro, sweet 
potatoes, bananas, guavas, and oranges, and thus almost 
all the food the school needed. The boys were taught 
the gospel of work. They were trained in the mechanic 



MELANESIA. 335 

trades, the cultivation of the ground, and the care of live- 
stock ; and to each of them was committed a small garden 
for him to cultivate for himself. They were kept in the 
school six to ten years, and then taken, as teachers, to 
their homes or to other islands. 

In 1854 Rev. John Coleridge Patteson joined the mis- 
sion. He had been moved, when fourteen years of age, 
by a sermon of Bishop Selwyn, to devote himself to the 
missionary cause. He relinquished opportunities for high 
advancement, went as a missionary at his own charges, 
refusing a salary, and contributed a thousand dollars for 
the Norfolk School. In 1861 he was consecrated as the 
First Bishop of Melanesia, Selwyn having resigned because 
of ill health. 

Although it was arranged that Norfolk youth should 
perform the pioneer work of the mission, the English 
missionaries did not escape, nor greatly shrink from 
privations, sufferings or perils. It is said that "not a 
missionary ever went down to these islands, without con- 
tracting fever and ague." The orders to the missionaries 
were " Go till you are a wreck, and then come and get fit 
to go again." Many of them did not get fit, but died, or 
were obliged to return to England. 

Every missionary entering an island, not previously 
Christianized, incurred peril, because of the tribal en- 
mities of the natives, and their wrath toward the foreigners 
engaged in the labor traffic. As on each island there were 
many tribes fiercely at enmity with each other, to enter an 
island was like entering a mad-house. As those engaged 
in the labor traffic conducted the business, lawlessly, 



336 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

cruelly and often by kidnapping, 1 the natives on many of 
the islands were fierce to wreak vengeance on every white 
man coming to their shores. For these reasons, the mis- 
sionaries were often attacked. In 185 1 the Undine, with 
the Bishops, Selwyn and Tyrrell on board, was assailed in 
the Santa Cruz Group, and barely escaped by a sudden 
breeze. In 1864 the natives of the same group attacked 
Bishop Patteson while he was voyaging in a boat in the 
same group, and mortally wounded by poisoned arrows 
two Norfolk youths who were with him. On September 
20, 187 1, as is recounted in Chapter II, Bishop Patteson 
was killed at Nakapu of the Reef Group. Just previous 
to his arrival there the pirate, Bully Hayes, under disguise 
as a missionary, there enticed five natives aboard his ship, 
and kidnapped them. The natives indicated by five knots, 
tied in palm leaves, laid on the body of the Bishop, when 
they delivered it in a canoe near the ship, that the murder 
was vengeance for the kidnapping. 

The death of Bishop Patteson was greatly lamented, for, 
by lofty self-sacrificing benevolence, he had greatly prom- 
oted the welfare of the Melanesians and proved himself 
one of the noblest missionary heroes. At the place where 
he was murdered a monumental cross was erected to his 
memory. 

1 The labor traffic was so profitable that it was strenuously and 
recklessly conducted. For a single laborer taken to Fiji or Aus- 
tralia, a captain would receive a hundred and fifty dollars, while his 
expense in taking him thither was only five to ten dollars. By a 
single trip for laborers a captain would sometimes clear four 
thousand dollars. 



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v - 


<c H "1 ' 


W***r* , * , - , v'*' ^^^^ 




"^jL JOB ^^jB 




Blj / 




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M 4fl 


Hi -v ^* v ,. ' 




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■i 



MELANESIA. 337 

Of the five kidnapped natives four escaped from Fiji, 
whither they had been taken, and returned home, ill with 
dysentery contracted at Tanna. The disease spread and 
caused so many deaths that the natives attributed it to the 
God of the Bishop, and afterward diligently sought the 
favor of the missionaries. 

The successors of Bishop Patteson were, in 187 1 Rev. 
R. Codrington, in 1877 Rev. John Selwyn, son of the 
founder of the mission, and in 1894 Rev. Cecil Wilson, 
the present Bishop. 

Like the missions conducted by other religious de- 
nominations in the Pacific Islands, this mission of the 
Episcopalians has been very successful. The Melanesians 
who have embraced Christianity have ceased from their 
cannibalism, their head-hunting and their warfare, and 
have become an humble, upright and peace-loving people. 

In 1905 the number of baptized persons in the groups 
of the mission was 12,793, of communicants 2,811, of 
white missionaries 41, of native teachers 689, of mission 
stations 200. 

In 1902 the Methodists commenced missionary work at 
Gizo in New Georgia of this group. New Georgia 
comprises four islands, 2,000 to 3,000 feet high. Its 
people are the most inveterate head-hunters of the Pacific. 
At Gizo the Methodists have 16 church-members and 500 
adherents. 

In 1899 a Protectorate of Germany was established 
over Bougainville of the Solomon Group, and a Protec- 
torate of Great Britain over the remaining islands of the 
Group. Recently a Joint Protectorate of Great Britain 



338 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

and France has been established over the New Hebrides, 
Banks, and Torres Groups. These Protectorates secure 
the peace, order and good Government of the groups, 
regulate or repress the labor traffic, prohibit sales of in- 
toxicating liquors to the natives, and secure to the natives 
possession of their lands. 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 339 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 

The desperate adventurers who in the latter part of 
the last century settled on Pitcairn Island led a life of 
more romantic interest, more tragic events, and more 
remarkable consequences, than that of the so-called 
Robinson Crusoe, who was described as residing on the 
neighboring island of Juan Fernandez. Though the 
story of these adventurers does not strictly belong to 
mission history, it seems to be necessary to give it in 
this book in order to complete the history of the 
1 'changes from the old to the new in the Pacific. " 

After the return of Capt. Cook from his voyages of 
exploration in this part of the world, the British govern- 
ment determined to introduce the breadfruit trees, of 
which marvellous accounts were given, into the West 
Indies, and for this purpose sent Lieut. William Bligh 
to procure them from Tahiti. Lieut. Bligh had formerly 
visited the Pacific as captain of the Resolution, under 
Capt. Cook. He sailed from England on the 23d of 
December, 1777, in the war-sloop Bounty, with forty- 
four seamen, a botanist, and a gardener, and arrived in 
Tahiti in the following October. Remaining there six 
months, he carefully stored his ship with over a thousand 
breadfruit trees, planted in 800 tubs and boxes, and then 
in April, 1779, set sail for the West Indies. 



340 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

One would have thought that, after their long exile 
from England, these seamen would have been delighted 
to be "homeward bound;" but they had become de- 
moralized with the enchantments of Tahiti, and were 
impatient under the severity of their commander and the 
tiresome routine of sea-faring life. Their commander, 
Lieut. Bligh, seems to have been a pious man, and he 
doubtless had reason for exercising severity towards 
them, as some of them were desperate men ; but he 
certainly was unwise in his methods of discipline. 

The foremost one to revolt against him was his mate, 
Fletcher Christian, who had been with him on a former 
voyage and was under pecuniary obligations to him. 
Christian came from a respectable family in England, 
being a brother of Prof. Christian, the annotator of 
Blackstone's Commentaries, and he had a wife and chil- 
dren in England. He therefore had everything to lose 
by committing crime. But he was exasperated because 
Lieut. Bligh often made taunting allusions to his indebt- 
edness and now charged him with pilfering from the 
ship's supply of cocoanuts. Upset by these annoyances, 
as a ship without ballast may capsize in the lightest 
squalls, he resolved to desert the ship. As he was about 
to do this on a raft, on the 28th of April, while the 
ship was near Tofoa, of the Tonga group, he confided his 
plan to a shipmate, and this man advised him rather to 
undertake to capture the ship and return to Tahiti. 
Strange to say, this mad proposition pleased him ; and 
he at once suggested it to many of the crew. They 
agreed to it, some from desire to return to sensual life at 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 34 1 

Tahiti, and others from fear of being in the weaker party 
on the ship. Thinking that "if it were to be done, it 
were well it were done quickly," they lost no time in 
acting on this proposition. Christian with three men 
seized Lieut. Bligh when he was asleep in his berth ; 
and the other conspirators seized the officers. Lieut. 
Bligh broke away, and sprang upon the upper deck, and 
called for help to put down the mutiny ; but he was 
quickly overcome, and with his officers and special 
friends, nineteen in number, placed in the launch. This 
was a boat twenty-three feet long, and six feet nine inches 
broad, and had a mast and sails. The mutineers put into 
this boat 150 pounds of bread, thirty-two pounds of 
pork, twenty-eight gallons of water, six bottles of wine, 
six gallons of rum, a compass, a quadrant and four cut- 
lasses, and set the boat adrift. 

It will be of interest to briefly consider the adven- 
tures of that little company in this boat before proceed- 
ing with the history of the mutineers. So many men in 
so small a boat were uncomfortably crowded ; the boat 
was weighted down to within six inches of the water ; 
the wind was strong, the sea high, and it was necessary 
to continually bale out water from the boat to keep it 
afloat. They steered for the island, Tofoa, which was 
thirty miles distant; but as they drew near to it they 
found that its shores were high and lashed with a tre- 
mendous surf. They therefore sailed around to the lee- 
ward, or northwest, side of the island, and there entered 
a cove and anchored. 

On going ashore to search for food and water they 



342 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

found that only a few cocoanuts could be obtained, and 
that with peril, from trees on the cliffs, and that water 
was scarce ; but climbing the precipices to the interior 
of the island they met two natives, who gave them a 
little food and water. As the storm continued they re- 
mained in this cove several days, and were visited by the 
natives bringing cocoanuts for barter. Finally a great 
multitude of the natives gathered around them, and 
showed by their insolence, and by knocking together 
stones in their hands, that they meditated violence. 
Bligh therefore suddenly ordered his men to rush with 
him to the boat, and all but one succeeded in doing so. 
This one made the mistake of running along the shore, 
and was pursued by the savages and clubbed to death. 

The white men now had considerable difficulty to 
loose from their anchor, and this gave the natives time 
to fetch their canoes and pursue them. Paddling to- 
wards them the natives hurled stones upon them, and 
finally were about to lay hold of the boat when Lieut. 
Bligh threw overboard some articles of clothing. The 
natives stopped so long to pick up these that the boat 
got a considerable distance away. As night was coming 
on the natives then returned to the island. 

Lieut. Bligh and his companions now resolved not to 
again risk themselves among savages, but to endeavor to 
reach some civilized settlement ; and to make their pro- 
visions hold out for a long voyage they limited them- 
selves to an allowance of an ounce of bread and one- 
fourth of a pint of water per day for each man. Bligh 
measured out the allowance for each meal very accu- 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 343 

rately by means of a pair of scales which he made out of 
two cocoanut-shells, while a pistol bullet (of twenty-five 
to the pound) served as a weight. The sea continued 
many days very rough, with squalls of wind and rain, 
and several heavy thunder-storms occurred, by which 
they were thoroughly chilled and nearly swamped ; but 
they thereby caught twenty gallons of water, which saved 
them from dying with thirst. 

Lieut. Bligh composed a prayer, partly from his recol- 
lection of the prayer-book, for use on this voyage, and 
wrote it in a blank signal-book which is now extant. It 
contained confessions of sins, invocations of God's help, 
and thanks for his mercies, and was often repeated by 
the party. He also kept a brief journal of their expe- 
riences. 

Several times they passed close to islands, and once 
they were pursued by two large canoes filled with canni- 
bals, and barely succeeded in escaping. Their situation 
was anything but comfortable, with " sharks beneath, 
cannibals behind, and storms above " ! As they passed 
along the northern coast of Australia they entered a bay 
and landed on a little island, and obtained abundance of 
water and feasted on shell-fish. On the 14th of June 
they arrived at the Dutch settlement at Coupon, on the 
island of Timore, having been forty-seven days in their 
little open boat, voyaging 4,000 miles. The Dutch 
governor, William Adrian Von Este, received them very 
kindly and provided for them. 

Lieut. Bligh arrived again in England on the 23d of 
March, 1790, and reported the mutiny ; and the war-ship 



344 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Pandora was sent to arrest the mutineers. Bligh was 
promoted by the British government and commanded a 
ship under Nelson. He was afterwards appointed gov- 
ernor of New South Wales, and ultimately became a 
vice-admiral. 

Turning now to the history of the mutineers, we find 
that, after setting the boat adrift, they sailed for two 
hours in a westerly direction, to prevent the company in 
the boat from knowing whither they were going, and 
then went to Tubuai, of the Austral group. The natives 
of this island resisted their attempt to land, and they 
therefore went to Tahiti to procure interpreters. They 
informed the Tahitians that the commander and officers 
of their ship had found an island suitable for settlement, 
and had sent them to procure provisions. Believing this 
story, the Tahitians supplied them bountifully with fruit, 
vegetables and hogs, and even gave back to them a bull 
and cow thatXieut. Bligh had presented to them. The 
mutineers then returned to Tubuai and were permitted 
to land. They at once set about constructing a fort for 
defence ; but the natives got the idea that it was de- 
signed for a tomb for themselves, and suddenly attacked 
them and drove them to their ship. 

Christian now proposed that they should go to some 
uninhabited island, where they would be safe from mo- 
lestation, but several of them objected. They therefore 
returned to Tahiti, and there put on shore those who 
so desired, and divided to them part of the stores of the 
ship. Thirteen of these men who settled on Tahiti were 
arrested by the frigate Pandora in March, 1791. This 




Parliament of Pitcairn Island. 

By permission, from " The Story of Pitcahn. T 




Pitcairn Avenue. 

By permission, from " The Story of Pitcairn." 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 345 

frigate was wrecked in the following August on a coral 
reef near Australia, and four of the mutineers with thirty 
of the crew went down with her. The remainder of the 
crew took the surviving mutineers a thousand miles in 
open boats, and obtained passsage for them and them- 
selves to England. These mutineers were tried in the 
English courts, and two of them were hung. 

The mutineers who remained on the ship invited 
some native women to a farewell banquet, and then sud- 
denly put to sea, keeping them and six native men on 
board. They then sailed, by Christian's advice, to Pit- 
cairn Island, and landed at its northwestern extremity in 
a little bay, which they named Bounty Bay. In going 
ashore through the surf they carried an infant daughter 
of one of their Tahitian women in a barrel to protect her 
from the ocean spray. They then took everything they 
desired from the ship and set it on fire, that it might not 
be a means of their being discovered. 

Pitcairn Island, which they had now made their 
home, was discovered by the English captain, Philip 
Carteret, on the 2d of July, 1767, and by him named 
Pitcairn after a midshipman who was the first to see it. 
It is situated at latitude 25 south and longitude 1300 
west, and is part of the Pearl, or Tuamotu, group, being 
one hundred miles south of Oeno, of this group. It is 
five and a half miles in circumference and two and a half 
in diameter, and rises at its highest point in a central 
ridge 1,109 ^ eet above the ocean. At its northern ex- 
tremity there is another peak that faces Bounty Bay with 
great precipices. This island has no coral reef, but its 



346 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

shores rise abruptly in steep and rugged basaltic cliffs, 
which preclude the possibility of landing except at two 
or three points. Near the bay is a plateau of fertile land 
of four hundred feet elevation above the ocean, and be- 
yond this there is a little valley. Water is scarce, and 
for this reason it is customary to collect it in tanks 
during times of rain. 

At the latitude of Pitcaim cocoanut and breadfruit 
trees do not thrive well ; but bananas, oranges, pine- 
apples, and the yam, sweet-potato, and taro, have been 
successfully cultivated on this island. When the 
mutineers arrived there was here a luxuriant vegeta- 
tion of palms, pandanus, and grand banyan trees ; and 
brilliant vines overran the rocks and hung veils of beauty 
adown the faces of the precipices. The island seemed 
to be just the place they desired, a place where they 
might realize the poet's dream of uninterrupted enjoy- 
ment : 

" Never comes the trader, never floats a European flag. 
Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the 
crag. 

Here the passions, cramped no longer, should have scope and 

breathing space. 
They would take their savage women ; these should rear their 

dusky race. 
Iron-jointed, supple-sinewed, they should dive, and they should run» 
Catch the wild goats by the hair and hurl their lances in the sun." 

But there were elements in the characters of these 
men that made an elysium for them impossible. The 
restless waters that beat on the shores of their island 
were not more turbulent than the passions that surged 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 347 

in their minds, and were yet to change their paradise 
into a hell. 

The number of people who first settled here was 
twenty-eight. It consisted of nine white men, four 
Tahitian men, two Austral men, twelve Tahitian women 
and one infant Tahitian girl. The names of the white 
men were Fletcher Christian, John Mills, Isaac Martin, 
William Brown, Matthew Quintal, John Williams, Ed- 
ward Young, William McCoy, and John Adams, whose 
name in the ship records was Alexander Smith. 

For a few days these people lived in tents while they 
were building houses, which they erected on the plateau 
near the bay. Then they began to clear the land for 
cultivation, and divided it among themselves. They 
gave no land to the natives, and the natives quietly sub- 
mitted, as they expected to be only servants to the 
whites. In clearing the land the mutineers left a row of 
trees between the village and the sea, to conceal the 
houses from passing ships. They also left a cluster of 
trees at the mouth of a cave in a secluded part of the 
island, as they proposed to hide there in case they should 
be pursued. 

For two years this little community lived in peace, 
cultivating the ground with seeds and plants they had 
brought from Tahiti, and providing themselves with 
whatever they could contrive for their comfort. Then 
there began a struggle among them that reminds one of 
the war that Rev. John Williams found at Hervey Island, 
by which the population of that island was reduced 
from two thousand to seven. In this struggle there was 



348 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

an illustration of the proverb that there is generally a 
woman in every trouble ; for the occeasion of the con- 
troversy was the death of Williams' wife, who fell from a 
precipice while collecting birds' eggs. Williams demand- 
ed that another wife should be given to him, and finally 
appropriated a wife of one of the native men. Then the 
natives conspired to kill all the whites. They would 
have succeeded in doing so if the women had not di- 
vulged the plot by singing the words, 

" Why does black man sharpen axe ? 
To kill white men." 

Hearing this song, Christian seized his gun and went 
in search of the native men. Finding one of them he dis- 
charged his gun, loaded only with powder, to show that 
the plot was discovered. The native then fled to the 
woods, and soon with the other natives sued for pardon. 
This was granted on condition that they would kill two 
of their ringleaders. One of these, the husband of the 
woman Williams had taken, was killed, horrible to tell, 
by this woman herself, and the other by other natives. 

For two years now there was peace on the island ; 
but the situation was anything but delightful. Desper- 
adoes such as these and their savage wives could not 
long continue in tranquil enjoyment. Often were to be 
heard the loud altercations of the men contending with 
each other, or the screams of the women receiving chas- 
tisement from their husbands. Always the men were 
in painful anxiety lest their retreat should be discovered 
and they taken to punishment. Much of the time one 
of their number sat on a high rock, called "Lockout 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 349 

Rock," watching for any war-vessel that might approach 
to search for them. As they passed tedious hours in 
this way they suffered from the monotony of their life, 
homesick desire for the friends from whom they had 
been long separated, remorse for the crimes they had 
committed, and dread of the retribution that surely 
awaited them. They had sought low sensual pleasures, 
but now they found these as unsatisfactory as the brine 
of the sea to the thirst ; they had fled from civilization, 
but they needed to fly from themselves ; and they could 
no more escape from trouble than withdraw their island 
from the ocean that surrounded it. 

The oppressive conduct of two of the men, Quintal 
and McCoy, finally moved the natives to conspire again 
to destroy all the whites. Taking some guns, with the 
pretense of shooting hogs, they shot Christian, as he was 
at work in his yam patch, and then killed four of the 
other men. There now remained only four white men 
on the island : Adams, Quintal, Young and McCoy. 
These with the aid of the women killed the remaining 
native men, completing the terrible work on the 3d of 
October 1793. The next tragic event was the death 
of McCoy, who distilled intoxicating liquor from 
the sweet roots of the Ti plant {dracoena terminate), 
and in a delirium of drunkenness threw himself over a 
precipice. Not long after this Quintal lost his wife by 
her falling over a precipice while hunting birds' eggs. 
Forgetful of the former trouble that originated from such 
a cause, he then insisted on taking one of the wives of 
the other two men. Fearing that he would kill them 



350 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

to accomplish his purpose they attacked him, and 
after a desperate struggle killed him with an axe. Thus 
all but two of the white men came to sudden and vio- 
lent deaths — terrible retibutions, it would seem, for the 
mutiny they had committed ten years before. 

There were now on the island the two surviving men, 
Adams and Young, ten women and twenty-three chil- 
dren. In the greater quiet that prevailed, these men 
now meditated on their responsibility in the care of these 
people and on the terrible wickedness of their lives. 
Adams was first moved to this meditation by a dream. 
The remembrance of religious instruction received in 
childhood had remained under all his wild career, like 
a spark buried under ashes, and now burst into flame. 
Finding a Bible and prayer-book that had been pre- 
served from the ship, he and Young endeavored to 
give the little company under their care religious instruc- 
tion. But Young did not long survive to aid in this 
work : in the following year, 1 800, he died from asthma. 

Adams now, with genuine repentance of his former 
evil life, devoted himself to the religious education of 
the women and children. It was just the time when 
such education could be most successfully given to the 
the children, for the oldest of them was not over ten 
years of age ; and the situation in this secluded island, 
away from the contaminating influences of evil society, 
was as favorable for their training as that of the most 
isolated monasteries or nunneries. 

After this, the little colony on this island led a quiet, 
peaceful and virtuous life. They began and closed 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 35 1 

each day with prayer and praise to God. They spent 
much time in labor, the men cultivating the fields, fish- 
ing in the surrounding ocean, constructing houses and 
canoes, and hunting wild goats and hogs, the women 
making cloth from the bark of the paper-mulberry, and 
mats and hats from palm and pandanus leaves. In pro- 
cess of time the patriarch Adams was called to perform 
wedding ceremonies for the young people that grew up. 
Rings, ingeniously fashioned out of sea-shells, were used 
to seal the marriage vows, and new cottages were built 
for the new families. The little village thus enlarged on 
the plateau became very attractive, with embowering 
palm, banana and cocoanut trees, a grand banyan at one 
extremity, the great mountain peak standing guard near 
by, and a magnificent outlook over the ocean. 

Eight years were thus passed in utter seclusion from 
the outside world, and then a startling event occurred : 
a ship arrived ; the first ship that had visited the island 
since the mutiny. Twenty years had passed without the 
civilized world knowing anything about the mutineers or 
their descendants. To the young Pitcairners this ship 
was about as wonderful as Capt. Cook's ships to the Ha- 
waiians, who thought them islands covered with trees. 
A young woman ran to Adams telling him that an upset 
shed, with its roof in the water and its posts standing 
mid-air, was floating towards the island. He at once 
understood that a ship was coming. It was the Topaz, of 
Nantucket, Capt. Mayhew Folger, on a sealing voyage to 
the South Pacific. It arrived at Pitcairn on the 7th of 
February, 1808. Capt. Folger was surprised to see 



352 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

smoke rising from the island, for it had been reported 
to be uninhabited. He despatched two boats to search 
on the shore for seals ; as these boats approached the 
land they were met by three men in a canoe. The men 
spoke English, and stated that there was a white man on 
the island. Capt. Folger and his crew were cordially 
welcomed and delightfully entertained by the Pitcairners. 
On returning to England Capt. Folger reported his dis- 
covery of the descendants of the mutineers, describing 
them as "a very humane and hospitable people, " and 
Adams as ' ' a reformed and worthy man. " 

For six more years this island remained in isolation 
from the rest of the world ; and then the British war- 
ships Briton and Tagus arrived on their way from the Mar- 
quesas to Valparaiso. The people on these ships were 
surprised to see well-constructed houses and cultivated 
fields on the island ; and still more were they surprised 
when two young men, who paddled off in a canoe, called 
out in English, "Wont you heave us a rope now?" 
The young men were cordially received on board the 
ships. One of them gave his name as Thursday October 
Christian, a name given to commemorate the time of his 
birth. He was "a tall, handsome young man, about 
twenty-four years of age. His scanty clothing consisted 
of a waist-cloth, while he wore a broad-brimmed straw 
hat adorned with black cocks' feathers." His compan- 
ion, George Young, was "a fine noble-looking youth, 
seventeen or eighteen years of age." These young men 
were invited into the cabin and to a repast. Before par- 
taking of food they rose and reverently asked the divine 




>• E 
< 2 

H .2 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 353 

blessing. The people on the ships were much amused 
at their curious inquiries about whatever they saw on 
the ship. Seeing a cow, they inquired whether it was 
a "huge goat or a horned sow." John Adams had 
resolved to give himself up to these ships for trial by 
the British government ; but the Tahitian women en- 
treated so earnestly with tears that he should not be 
taken from them that he was permitted to remain on 
the island. 

In October, 1823, the English whaleship Cyrus, 
Capt. Hall, visited this island, and at Adams' request left 
on shore a young man, by the name of John Buffett, to 
assist in instructing the children. A friend of Buffett, 
John Evans, nineteen years old, at the same time de- 
serted the ship, hiding in a hollow tree, and remained on 
the island. It became apparent soon after why he had 
left the ship. He asked the hand of Adams' daughter. 
The old man hesitated to give her to a stranger, and 
referred the matter to the young woman. She replied, 
"Try it, Daddy." They were then married. Buffett 
also was married, obtaining for his bride Dorothy, a 
daughter of Edward Young. About this time a way- 
ward daughter of Quintal was so harshly treated by her 
brother that she went on a passing ship to Rurutu, of 
the Austral group, and there became the wife of a chief, 
and reared a numerous family. It was this woman that 
in 1833 applied to Alexander and Whitney, of the Ha- 
waiian Islands, when they were visiting Rurutu, to 
baptize her children. (See Chapter IX.) 

A very interesting account has been given by Capt 



354 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

F. W. Beechey of a visit he made to Pitcairn in the 
British war-ship Blossom in 1825. Adams, then sixty- 
five years old, went on board this ship, the first he had 
boarded since the mutiny, and persuaded the captain to 
marry him to his wife. He was described as "a bald, 
corpulent man, dressed in a sailor's shirt, trowsers, and 
a low-crowned hat. " At that time there were sixty-one 
persons on the island, of whom twenty-six were adults 
and thirty-five children. Like the other descendants of 
white men married to Polynesian women, they were a 
fine handsome people, of tall stature, well-proportioned, 
and very vigorous. The average height of the men was 
five feet and nine inches. "The women also were 
above the common height ; they were muscular from 
climbing the mountains ; their complexion was fairer 
than that of the men, and of a gypsy color, their hair 
was dark and glossy, and hung over their shoulders in 
long waving tresses, that were nicely oiled, tastefully 
turned back from the forehead and temples, and bound 
in place by chaplets of red and white aromatic blos- 
soms." 

Capt. Beechy and his officers were very cordially 
entertained by the Pitcairners two days on shore. They 
were feasted on pigs, chickens, yams and sweet pota- 
toes that had been cooked in the earth, wrapped with 
hot stones in H leaves. At nightfall torches of kukui nuts, 
strung on the midrib of the cocoanut leaf, were lighted 
in the houses, and religious worship was conducted. 
The bedding in which they slept consisted of mats and 
cloth made from the wauki, or paper-mulberry tree. 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 355 

Capt. Beechey found that the people were all thoroughly 
versed in Bible history, and described them as ' ' guileless 
and unsophisticated beyond conception." 

In the year 1828 a Mr. George Huns Nobbs, who 
had led an adventurous life, having been a midshipman 
in the British navy, a captive in Spain, and there a while 
under sentence of death till released by exchange of pris- 
oners, and having gone four times round the world, at- 
tracted by the accounts he read of Pitcairn Island started 
to go thither from London. On his way he arrived at 
Valparaiso, and obtained a boat, in which with one 
companion he made the voyage of 2,000 miles to Pit- 
cairn. Old Adams welcomed him, and perceiving that 
he was a worthy and well-educated man employed him 
as a school teacher, and finally as a minister of the gos- 
pel. He was married to Sarah Christian, a grand- 
daughter of the mutineer Fletcher Christian, and the 
materials of his boat were used to construct a house for 
him. 

For many years the remuneration Mr. Nobbs re- 
ceived for his services was very scanty, so poor were 
the islanders. In 1844 he thus wrote to a clergyman in 
Valparaiso : ' ' My stock of clothing which I brought 
from England is, as you may suppose, very nearly ex- 
hausted, and I have no friends there to whom I can 
with propriety apply for more. Until the last three 
years it was my custom to wear a black coat on the 
Sabbath ; but since that period I have been obliged to 
substitute a nankeen jacket of my own making. My 
only remaining coat, which is quite threadbare, is re- 



356 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

served for marriages and burials ; so that it is customary 
to say when a wedding is going to take place, ' Teach- 
er, you will have to put on your coat next Sunday,' 
which is equivalent to informing me that a couple are 
to be married. " He was afterwards very kindly and 
abundantly provided for both by the islanders and by 
friends abroad. 

After the death of Adams, which occurred on the 
29th of March, 1829, it became necessary to appoint 
a magistrate and enact laws. An election was held, 
the women voting as well as the men, and a son of 
Quintal was elected magistrate, and seven other men 
chosen to act as a parliament. A code of laws was then 
carefully written. The introduction of intoxicating 
liquors was forbidden, except for medicinal purposes. 
Women were forbid to go on board of ships, except by 
the magistrates' permission and in company with four 
men of the island. It was forbidden to kill cats, unless 
they were positively detected in killing fowls. Any 
one violating this ordinance was required to destroy 
three hundred rats, submitting their tails for inspec- 
tion to the magistrate. The reason for this law was 
the great number of rats, which did much damage to su- 
gar cane. 

At length it became a serious question whether the 
limited resources of this island would much longer sus- 
tain its increasing population. The British government 
therefore arranged for a tract of land in Tahiti to 
be assigned to the Pitcaimers, and in February, 1831, 
conveyed them all thither. But soon after their arrival 



PITCAIRN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 357 

in this new home a fever broke out among them and 
caused the deaths of fourteen ; they were also much 
distressed at the immorality of the Tahitians. They 
therefore all returned to Pitcairn five months after their 
departure from that island. 

Afterwards the British government again became 
anxious lest the Pitcairners should fail to gain a suffi- 
cient livelihood from their little island ; for occasionally 
drouths diminished their crops and supply of water. 
They therefore granted them Norfolk Island, and in 
April, 1856, transported them all thither. 

Norfolk Island is situated 400 miles northwest of 
New Zealand, in latitude 29° 10' south and longitude 
1670 58' east. Near it are Nepean and Philip Islands 
and some rocks called Bird Islands. Norfolk Island is 
about five miles long, two and a half miles broad, has 
an area of 8,607 acres, is generally about 400 feet 
high above the sea, and rises at its highest point to an 
elevation of 1,050 feet. The soil consists of decom- 
posed basalt and is very fertile. The noble Norfolk 
Pine {Eutassa excelsa) abounds, also maples, iron-wood, 
palms and gigantic ferns. Oranges, lemons, guavas, 
bananas, peaches, figs and pineapples have been intro- 
duced, also potatoes, yams, maize and various cereals. 

Norfolk Island was discovered by Capt. Cook in 
1774, and colonized with convicts from New South 
Wales in 1787. At one time the number of these 
settlers was 2,000; but before 1856 they were removed 
because the people of New Zealand objected to the use 
of this island as a penal station. 



35 8 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

The Pitcairners arrived at this island on the 8th of 
June, 1856, after a voyage of thirty-six days. They 
found excellent houses of stone in readiness for them, 
and also delightful gardens, and an abundance of cattle 
and sheep. They were able to procure plentiful supplies 
of fish from the surrounding waters and rabbits from a 
neighboring island. They were visited and kindly pro- 
vided with flour and other necessary articles by Bishop 
Patteson, who afterwards established his missionary 
school for the natives of the Loyalty groups on the op- 
posite side of this island. 

The change from Pitcaim to this productive island 
would seem to have been most delightful ; but soon two 
families became homesick for their old home — the fam- 
ilies of Moses Young and Mayhew Young, sixteen in 
number; and in the latter part of the year 1858 they 
returned thither. They found Pitcaim, after its long 
abandonment, overgrown with vegetation, the orange 
and breadfruit trees loaded with fruit, yams and potatoes 
abundant in the fields, and chickens, pigs and goats 
roaming everywhere. In process of time four more fam- 
ilies returned to Pitcaim, although Bishop Patteson en- 
treated them to remain where they had educational and 
religious privileges. Two young men, however, of these 
families, Edwin Nobbs and Fisher Young, remained 
with Bishop Patteson, to attend his school and prepare 
for missionary work. These young men went on a mis- 
sionary voyage with Bishop Patteson and were attacked 
and killed by the natives of Santa Cruz. The families 
that returned to Pitcaim have ever since remained in that 



PITCA1RN AND NORFOLK ISLANDS. 359 

lonely island, away from the stirring activities of the civ- 
ilized world, content and happy in the unchanging mo- 
notony of life, 

11 Where all things always seem the same." 

The number of people now on the island is one hundred 
and thirty. 

In the year 1886 Rev. John I. Tay, a missionary of 
the Seventh-Day Adventists of America, visited the Pit- 
cairners and persuaded them to adopt Saturday as their 
Sabbath. The Christian people of England expressed 
much regret at this event. It might be said that the fact 
that those who go from England to this island by the 
way of Cape Horn gain a day in reckoning on those who 
go thither by the way of the Cape of Good Hope — the 
Sabbath of the former coming on Sunday and that of the 
latter on Saturday — indicates that neither of these days 
should be very strenuously insisted upon as the only one 
to be kept sacred. 

In their lonely retreat the Pitcairners have greatly 
enjoyed the visits of the mission brig Pitcairn, of the 
Seventh-Day Adventists, whereby they have been kept in 
touch with the civilized world. They will doubtless be 
led to embark with the Adventists in mission enterprises 
to the natives of New Guinea and other islands, while 
the Norfolk Islanders are likewise engaging in the Me- 
lanesian mission. Thus the descendants of the wild 
mutineers of the ship Bounty have become a new force 
in the missionary enterprises of the Pacific. 

The beautiful development that has been on this isl- 
land, from its former pandemonium into its present Eden, 



360 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

is one of the marvels of our times. Plainly it is to be 
attributed to Christianity ; to God's blessing on the truth 
of the Bible and on education of children in that truth. 
Through this divine blessing good has here been brought 
out of evil, light out of darkness, virtue out of vice ; "in- 
stead of the thorn has come up the fir tree, and instead 
of the briar the myrtle tree." 



CONCLUSION. 361 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

From the information acquired concerning the Pacific 
Islands and their peoples many truths of great interest 
and importance may be derived, which it seems desirable 
to recapitulate and more fully consider in this final chapter. 
Of the truths derived from the natural phenomena only 
a summary can here be' given. From the nature of the 
coral polyps, and the depths below and heights above the 
ocean-level to which their formations extend, it has been 
inferred, as has been mentioned, that in very ancient 
times there was a vast subsidence and subsequently a vast 
upheaval of the islands of that ocean. From the fact 
that these islands and their major axes extend in lines of 
direction that form the same angles with the Equator, as 
does the Ecliptic, it has been inferred that cosmic as well 
as terrestrial forces produce the subsidence and the up- 
heaval. These forces are supposed to have been those 
of the Sun and Moon in conjunction during the solstices 
and equinoxes, and those occasioned by the contraction 
of the Earth and its consequent surface-folding during its 
process of cooling. From the fact that the flora and 



362 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

fauna of the various islands are generally of identical 
species it has been inferred that at a very ancient period 
the islands were connected by stretches of land, that is, 
that an extensive territory, like the mythical Atlantis, has 
been submerged in that ocean. From the vast extent 
and depth of the Pacific, and the ascertained laws of 
planets in revolution it has been inferred that the cavity 
of that ocean was formed by the separation therefrom at 
a very ancient period of the mass of the Earth which now 
constitutes the Moon. From the flora and fauna of the 
Gallipagos Islands Charles Darwin derived his first sug- 
gestions of his Theory of Evolution by natural selection. 
From the flora and fauna of the Java Group Alfred Rus- 
sell Wallace derived the same theory. From the beautiful 
Achitinellinse shells, that abound on trees in the Hawaiian 
Islands, Rev. John T. Gulick deduced truths that seem to 
modify and to a great extent refute the theories of Darwin 
and Wallace. 

From the accounts given in the foregoing pages of the 
productions and exports of the Pacific Islands it may be 
inferred that those islands are destined to become in the 
future of greater economic importance than has been 
generally realized. Heretofore they have been regarded 
chiefly as delightful little Elysiums, interesting fields for 
missionary enterprise, or mere strategic points for the 
naval and commercial control of the ocean. Yet they 
have, in proportion to their areas, as excellent resources 
for producing wealth, as have the agricultural lands on 
the continents, and, in the aggregate, they rival in area, 
and may yet rival in productions some of the greatest 



CONCLUSION. 



363 



countries in the world. In the following table their areas, 
populations, and the present values of their exports are 
given. 





AREAS IN 




VALUES 


NAMES OF GROUPS 


SQUARE 


POPULATIONS 


OF 




MILES 




EXPORTS 


Hawaiian Islands 


6,454 


1 54,000 


$ 36,171,526 


Society " 


462 


*i5> 6 74 


360,000 


Tuanotu " ... 


350 


3,600 


181,826 


Marquesas " 


480 


4,500 


40,000 


Cook " 


142 


5,961 


191,225 
589,266 


Tonga " 


374 


20,000 


Samoa '" 


1,160 


38,972 


654,620 


Fiji " 


7,74o 


121,773 


2,931,186 


New Hebrides " 


5,"o 
16,000 


50,000 




Solomon " 


167,000 


150,000 


New Zealand " 


104,471 


819,237 


63,230,805 


New Caledonia" 


6,534 


52,756 


400,000 


Sumatra " 


161,612 


3,000,000 




New Guinea " 


3 l 3> lS 3 


468,000 




Celebes " 


71,150 


923,893 


3,580,000 


Borneo " 


284,000 


1,865,000 


10,250,000 


Java " 


5o,39o 


26,125,053 


100,369,300 


Philippine " 


127,853 
i3,58o 


6,975>°73 


29,000,000 


Formosa " 


2,797,543 


7,800,000 


Japan " 


162,153 


50,000,000 


104,380,800 


Ladrone " 


430 


10,938 ) 




Caroline " 


560 


36,000 > 


1,000,000 


Marshall & Gilbert 


325 


48,600 ) 




Total 


i>334>5i3 


93,705,573 


$363,280,554 





As may be readily understood, none of the islands, 
mentioned in the above table, are yielding as great ex- : 
ports as they would if their resources were fully developed 
In most of them only a fourth of their resources has been 
developed. In some of the largest of them, as in New 



364 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

Guinea, Sumatra, and the Solomon Group, hardly a begin- 
ning has been made of exporting their productions. Yet 
we may obtain from the above table a criterion for esti- 
mating to what extent the aggregate exports of all of 
them may be increased. This we can do by seeking our 
data from the most developed islands. As the islands 
are of two kinds, those of volcanic formation, and those of 
coral formation, our data should be taken from both these 
kinds. Of the former kind the most developed are the 
Hawaiian. But in the Hawaiian Islands there still are 
extensive, productive lands that have not been brought 
under cultivation. Of the latter kind the most developed 
are the Tongan. But in the Tongan Islands hardly a 
third of their cultivable area has been utilized. It seems 
conservative to take for our data the value per square 
mile of the present exports of the Hawaiian Group and 
twice the value per square mile of those of the Tongan 
Group. The mean of these values is #4.3777. This we 
take to be the average value per square mile to which the 
aggregate exports of the islands may be increased. Mul- 
tiplying this amount by the number of square miles in 
the aggregate area of the groups, we ascertain that the 
aggregate value to which the exports of all the groups may 
be developed is #5,841,163,401. 

That the resources of the islands will be as greatly 
developed as these figures indicate may seem improbable. 
But, undoubtedly, the growing necessities of the great 
countries bordering on the Pacific, as well as those of the 
rest of the world, will tax to the utmost all the resources 
of the islands, and the future vast trans-Pacific commerce 



CONCLUSION. 365 

will stimulate to the highest development the industrial 
enterprises of the islands, so that the islands will yield 
almost all that their resources can produce. Doubtless 
no one can form an adequate conception of the greatness 
of the future commerce of this part of the world. 

From these facts we learn how urgent is the necessity 
of enterprises for uplifting the inhabitants of the islands 
into genuine civilization, and how important it is to de- 
termine which of these enterprises will be the most suc- 
cessful. 

From the past history of the islanders we learn that, 
without assistance, they cannot rise into civilization. 
Bishop Richard Whately has declared that " there is no 
one instance of any savage people in the world rising into 
a civilized condition, without instruction and assistance 
from people already civilized. Whenever civilization has 
been introduced into such a people, it has been intro- 
duced not from within, but from without." This has been 
true of the Pacific Islanders. Throughout the long past 
ages of their paganism not a single tribe of them spon- 
taneously rose to better enlightment and better con- 
ditions. 

From that history we learn also that the islanders 
cannot be uplifted by the mere influences of civilization. 
It has been generally supposed that the establishment of 
commerce, the introduction of the superior implements 
and the choicest fabrics of enlightened countries, instruc- 
tion in mechanical arts, and fellowship with people of 
civilized nations would very powerfully awake and elevate 
barbarous tribes. A popular journalist, who happened to 



366 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

land in Hawaii on Sunday and found its business houses 
closed on that day, published the view that Honolulu was 
a "piety-stricken city," and that the missionaries had 
made a great mistake in teaching the Hawaiians the stern 
tenets of Puritanism, instead of giving them instruction 
more in conformity with the beauty of their scenery, and 
leading them with poetry and song into high culture and 
refinement. But the influences of civilization have never 
been of power to cause the moral renovation that is essen- 
tial for the beginning of true civilization. It has been 
true of the people of the Pacific, as of all the heathen 
races elsewhere, that they have needed provision for their 
spiritual wants before they would accept civilization. In 
many islands the natives have refused to put on clothes, 
and have preferred to bask in the sun, feeding on the 
spontaneous fruits of their forests, instead of laboring in 
the enterprises of civilization, and have only at last ac- 
cepted clothing when they have become Christian. A 
few chiefs from different groups have been taken to Europe 
and America, clothed in the best style of civilized people, 
shown the splendors of modern arts, and lavishly supplied 
with the means of living in enlightened style, and have 
returned to their homes to be only more evil and bar- 
barous than before. A philanthropist once took a plough 
into the interior of Africa and showed the natives how to 
use it. As they saw it turning up more sod in an hour 
than they could dig up in a month they danced and turned 
somersaults in delight. But when a few days afterward 
he returned to see how they had succeeded in using it, he 
found that they had turned it upside down, covered it 



CONCLUSION. 367 

with flowers, and were worshipping it. They had deeper 
wants than to be supplied with the mere implements of 
civilization, and till those wants were supplied it was use- 
less to endeavor to civilize them. We might as well ex- 
pect that the winged seeds and butterflies that sometimes 
are blown into the volcanic craters of Hawaii would there 
cause a kingdom of life, as to suppose that the useful and 
ornamental arts of civilization, when introduced into a 
pagan country, would develop a pure and noble people. 

But the influences from civilized countries, when not 
accompanied by Christianity, have not been only useless, 
but also harmful. They have only awakened cupidity, 
instigated robberies, murders and piracies, and have been 
accompanied by an immorality that has been more degrad- 
ing and deadly than heathenism itself. And thus the 
worst developments of the islanders have been where they 
have had the most contact with civilized races, and the 
best where they have been secluded from such races. 

Nor can the Pacific Islanders be uplifted by the in- 
fluences of spurious Christianity. In a preceding chapter 
we considered the striking illustration of this fact afforded 
in the history of the Marquesans. By that history it was 
shown that,at the coming of the white men, the Marquesans 
were physically and mentally the finest of the Polynesian 
races, and that the inhabited islands the best calculated 
to develop a vigorous courageous and independent-spirited 
people ; it was shown also that for sixty years they were 
under the training of an able force of Roman Catholics, 
aided by the wealth, the military power and the civil 
Government of France, and that now they are unchanged 



368 THE ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

in character, ready, whenever the French police shall be 
withdrawn, to return to barbarism and cannibalism, and 
dying off at the rate of seven per cent per annum. 

Many simular illustrations may be given ; as those of 
the results of the labors of the Roman Catholic mission- 
aries among the tribe called " Hauhaus," in New Zealand, 
among the natives of the Philippine Islands, and among 
those of Guam. It would be difficult to find in all the 
world a pagan tribe which Roman Catholic missionaries, 
unaided by evangelical Christians, have, during the past 
three hundred years, uplifted into genuine Christian 
civilization. 

On the other hand, we have in the history of the 
Pacific Islands numerous illustrations of the success of 
evangelical missionaries in uplifting pagan tribes of various 
races and in various environments into genuine Christian 
civilization. We have seen that, just as far as evangelical 
missionaries have had opportunity, they have been able, 
through God's blessing, to deliver the islanders from their 
primeval heathenism and savagery, to advance them to- 
ward civilization, and to conserve them from extinction 
as races. In the Tongan, Cook, Society and Samoan 
Groups and in New Zealand the native populations have 
been lately increasing, and in the other groups under 
missionary care the rate of decimation has been greatly 
diminished. Whoever, with candid mind, goes through 
the Pacific Islands receives, as it were, a new proclamation 
of the Gospel — a proclamation, not by words, but by 
achievements, that Christ is saving lost men. 

These successes indicate that the Christian denomi- 



CONCLUSION. 369 

nations, conducting missionary enterprises in the Pacific 
Islands, are essentially one. Since these denominations 
have been alike successful, their success is to be attributed, 
not to the matters in which they differ, but to those in 
which they agree ; and it must be admitted that by their 
agreement they are in fact, as they should be in form, 
ONE. 

These successes indicate, also, that Christianity can and 
will transform the world. From a small portion of arc 
we can determine the circuit the arc is calculated to pro- 
duce. According to a Japanese proverb, we can learn the 
Suture from the past. This is scientific ; for all science 
is built on inductions ; from the known to the unknown. 
Thus from the history of Christianity in the Pacific Islands 
we can forecast its future course throughout the world. 
As in those islands it has transformed the most degraded, 
obdurate, and hopeless races, it can transform all races. 

These successes prove, also, the truth of Christianity. 
The triumphs of Missions are of apologetic value. They 
afford the evidence of which Christ taught when he said 
" By their fruits ye shall know them." They show that 
Christianity produces good fruit. They show that so far 
as Christianity prevails, it makes heaven on earth, and 
prepares for the Heaven above. 

The religion that is of such truth, and produces such 
results every one should accept. The enterprises that are 
extending this religion throughout the world every one 
should strive to promote. 



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